Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015

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The Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015 was an enormous success this year. It is true that, in contrast to 2014, we were blessed with weather that encouraged visitors on both Saturday and Sunday, but that alone would not have explained the enjoyment of which everyone spoke.  For that we have a long list of thank yous.

This was my first year as ‘Chairman’, a gloriously overblown position which largely consisted of me inviting the later meetings to take place in my back-garden. Last year, I was chief assistant to Lesley Hayes who had so magnificently run the show for previous Garden Trails.  I made the wise decision to do everything that Lesley advised and her detailed planning instructions from times before were so very helpful.  I owe Lesley a great debt of gratitude: thank you for making the Garden Trail the organisational success it is.  In addition, Lesley and Colin agreed to host Afternoon Tea at their house and in that beautiful setting it did a roaring trade for the benefit of the church.

Kelsey and Mark Pearson very kindly agreed to host the Castle Cafe in their garden: what a gorgeous setting with the Manor ruins as a back-drop.  This too was a great success, not least in part due to the outstanding waitressing work of their daughters.

Jo and Patience ran a successful cake stall and bric-a-brac stand in the church which was also very busy.  In the days to come we will discuss how these three enterprises worked together and we will make decisions about refinements for the future.

Bridget Dixon did her usual magnificent job of checking who in the village wanted to open their gardens, getting the information together for the map of the tour and organising the complex rota of people to marshal the car-park.  In addition, thanks must go to the small army of helpers who printed maps, put up pagodas, sorted out numbers around the village, to tidied the verges, mowed lawns…. the list goes on.  Thank you all so much for giving your time freely and with good humour.

In total 16 gardens were open to the public, and what a treat they all were.  I was lucky enough to visit all the gardens late on Sunday afternoon.  What a range of styles and ideas were on display; little wonder so many of the visitors return year after year.  It would be lovely to encourage people to open their gardens for the first time.  The gardens do not have to be ‘perfect’, indeed I’m sure there is something to be said for allowing visitors to see the advantages of some more naturalistic approaches to garden design and maintenance.  Moreover, everyone can get as involved as they want with the visitors: some gardens had no-one from the household out to supervise, simply letting their garden do the talking.  Others enjoyed the opportunity to discuss their gardens with those coming round – I know I learn a lot from the discussions I had.

If you have any questions about this the Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015 and maybe have thoughts about getting involved for next year, then please phone me (01909 770131) or pop round to 31 Worksop Road.  We hope to start the formal planning for next year’s event in May 2016: keep a look out for information in Thorpe Matters.

Johnathan Cobb

Chairman, Thorpe in Bloom

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Courtyard Cafe

It’s a few years since we did any catering for the Garden Trail, so when Kelsey & Mark volunteered to open the Castle café, it was felt that to open the church for cream teas would be two venues that were too close together – so the church ‘moved’ to Whittle House for its catering. And it was brilliant!

We had, and needed, over twenty volunteers over the two days, and without them, we would have been totally stuck as there were times when we had a queue. Thank you to all – you were amazing.  Over the weekend, we served over 200 cream teas, which is an astonishing number.  It’s always hard to single out any names in particular, but Maureen B was amazing. She worked for all of the two days, keeping us in line and being a fabulous organizer. We had three young people – Alex, Rebecca and Ben – and I have received an email about their lovely manners and excellent service. Our thanks also go to Joan M, who shopped for and donated much of the food.

We raised over £500 for the church during Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015, which is a wonderful total. By Sunday night,  it was ‘never again’, but now… bring on 2016!

Lesley Hayes

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Castle Cafe

This years cafe was held at The Hayloft Castle Farm by Mark & Kelsey.

The menu consisted of an assortment of baguettes plus a Ploughman’s and Antipasti selection.This was completed by a variety of cakes and washed down with either tea coffee or an nice glass of Pimms. Saturday got off to a flyer with all 7 tables full, seating 20 people, and some using the sofas as extra seating. Sunday was slower due to the 10 minute monsoon we had at 10am but was steady throughout the afternoon. We served about 70 lunches and over 100 drinks. A big thank you to Mark’s mum and dad for their help and to their 2 daughters and friend for being great waitresses.

Mark & Kelsey Pearson

Organising The Garden Trail

There was little difficulty in recruiting gardens to open this year.  Most people had made up their minds about whether or not to open their gardens by mid-June and it was clear by the time of the first planning meeting that the event could go ahead. Encouragingly, several more people, mostly newly moved into the village, are considering opening next year – once they have got their gardens as they want them. Perhaps people are setting themselves too high a standard? The benefits of opening, besides sharing one’s treasures, include having a very tidy garden to sit in during August! I do hope that everyone who wanted to open their garden felt that they were invited to open.
Recruiting for car-park attendants began in earnest mid-June and was relatively straight forward. A few last-minute changes were needed – but everyone was very accommodating.

Bridget Dixon

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A Big “Thank You” ….

… from all of us at St Peter’s church. Whilst it was strange not to have cream teas in the church, the bric-a-brac stall and the cake stall were a huge success.  From bejewelled handbags to squash and badminton racquets, the variety of the items donated was brilliant, so a big ‘thank you’ to all those who raided their cupboards to find things to donate.

And as for the cake stall – we have some amazing bakers in the village. The quality and variety of cakes and biscuits was more than Mary Berry could have hoped for; there was nothing left at the end of the day!
With donations from the Courtyard café and the Castle café there has been around £1000 raised for the church. This is a really humbling amount, and on behalf of Rev. Gary and the PCC, I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who helped in so many ways.

Jo Collingwood

And the reason we do it…

… is to raise money for the village, the church and a number of charities. With over 500 people paying to take part, we raised over £2500 for Thorpe in Bloom, which is a superb total. Some of the monies are still being tallied, but with over £1000 being raised for St Peter’s, £350 for Muscular Dystrophy, and other amounts for both Thornberry and St Bernard’s animal welfare charities, it looks as if we have raised around £4000 for a wide variety of organisations. For a tiny village, this is a truly wonderful amount, and all those taking part should give themselves a pat on the back.

Volunteers ranged widely, from 9 to nearly 90, and from people who have lived here for a couple of weeks to those who have lived here all their lives.  There was a real buzz in the village… if you would like to be involved, we are always open to new ideas and love new faces. Contact Johnathan, Lesley or Bridget if you would like to become a part of our ‘happy bunch of helpers’!

Thorpe In Bloom

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Feedback

We a lovely day out today in Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015. Thank you to all concerned. I will treasure my picture of the church I bought today. It will have pride of place in my house. Happy memories of Wilson Buckle ex vicar there.

Barbara Foster

Just to let you know we had a lovely day today at Thorpe Salvin Garden Trail 2015. Some wonderful gardens and yummy refreshments. The young people serving us were very polite and everyone was friendly. A village to be proud of. Thank you to everyone for the excellent organisation.

Best wishes

Liz, Doncaster