Abbots Ripton Hall Garden Show 26th & 27th June 2010

ABBOTS RIPTON HALL GARDEN SHOW

Saturday 26th & Sunday 27th June 2010

10am-6pm

Abbots Ripton, Huntingdon

PE28 2PQ . Just off A1(M) & A 14

ENTRY £7 Adults. Children U15 - Free. GROUP BOOKINGS See Group Booking Page.

No other Concessions.

Plans are well advanced for our 2010 show and bookings are already getting full for the 100 Trade Stands we are expecting. See Trade Stands Pages.

Group Bookings are now open, and will be limited to 35 Coaches so please book early. Only £5 per head based on minimu group of 20

Friday Evening 25th June- Gala Evening - 6pm -9pm .

Wine & Canapes and a complete Preview of the weekend events. Trade Stand wil be open and Cheffins will be on hand to value/appraise your Antiques. Bring along Photos if you dontr want to bring the real thing.

By Invitation only. Minimum Donation £15 per Head. Contact Office for your Invitation.

REPORT ON 2008 GARDEN SHOW.

"The first Abbots Ripton Hall Garden Show was a success thanks to the knowledge and experience of Nigel Dyson. Only four years ago he did his first show in Little Bentley where he lives. As usual with a new idea it has been a case of trial and error. The key to success he has discovered is, first and foremost, an interesting garden not normally open to the general public, secondly there must be a plentiful supply of willing helpers and thirdly generous local sponsors.

All three conditions were fulfilled at Abbots Ripton in spades. Gavin Smith, head gardener at the Hall, with the help of his team and supported by Roger Churton and his estate staff, had the garden looking its very best. There was much to see with over 1200 species of plants and trees, some extremely rare, growing in a background designed over the last 60 years by three of the best international garden designers. An enormous troup of volunteers from the Red Cross, the Rotary, the Women's Institutes, Ormiston Children and Families Trust and our five local churches made light work of caring for some 7000 visitors in typical British summer weather. Saturday provided gentle but unrelenting rain long after 11 am by which time it was supposed to have stopped ; sunday blew a warm sunny gale that knocked over plants and hoardings. Among others we welcomed 49 busloads of visitors mainly on saturday, sensibly local people waited for the better weather on the sunday.

The Event started with a Gala evening on friday sponsored by Vernons and R.K.Harrison with delicious canapes made and served by the Red Cross.The entertainments guests came to see included 110 trade stands, a very popular art show for local artists, the silent auction of a great variety of gifts from dry-fly fishing on the River Itchen to a signed flag by all the players from the final rounds of the 2008 European Open Golf at Wentworth and on the next two days, teas and cakes served in front of the Hall to the accompaniment of brass bands. The finals of the NAFAS Eastern Region's annual flower arranging competition attracted many visitors and added to the funds. The scale of all this is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that the Women's Institutes cooked and sold 700 home made cakes!

Natural beauty has a strong spiritual side and so it was wonderfully appropriate that Bishop Anthony came from Ely on sunday to conduct a service in the shelter of the Rose Circle supported by the Brampton Youth Band and Ramsey's Thomas a Becket Choir. The sound of hymns floating across the fields instead of being trapped in a building added an unexpectedly beautiful dimension.

But our first garden show wasn't just a successful example of communities working together, it was also a financial success raising far more for local charities than the normal occasional sunday afternoon.Though the final accounts have yet to be completed, the majority of the money is in. This has enabled us to have already distributed five figure sums to the five charities together with a small donation to cover NAFAS's unfunded costs and a balance for the 2009 High Sheriff's Charity. So, many thanks and congratulations to all those who gave so much time, energy and thought to making it such a success and to our sponsors who funded so much of it - Barclays Bank, Burton Bros, Cheffins, Frontier, R.K.Harrison, the Hunts Post, NFU Insurance, Saffreys, Strutt & Parker, Vernon Property Management etc.

And would we do it again? with everybody's help, Yes. And could we do it even better? You bet we could.

John De Ramsey."

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