Looking Back - Horticultural Show

On Saturday (25th September) Bishop was a blooming with an array of bright chrysanthemums, dahlias and vegetables, as the Bishop Auckland Town Council Horticulture and Town Show, return for its 6th year after having to be cancelled in 2020 due to the pandemic. The show was held in a new venue, No.42 Market Place.

The Show had over 40 classes, which brought together exhibitors, young and old to showcase a range of disciplines from growing champion flowers, to giant leeks, onions, carrots, to children’s craft classes, flora art to jams, pies and cakes.

The quality of exhibits was again very high with chrysanthemums and dahlias being judges to national standards. National Society Certificates were issued to Peter McNeille for the for best vase and best exhibit of chrysanthemums, and to Ian Kitching for best vase and best exhibit of dahlias.

Councillor Katie Eliot, Mayor of Bishop Auckland, paid tribute to everyone that had contributed to this the first Town Council community event since the pandemic, by saying:
“It was wonderful that we were able to host the show again this year as it was such a miss in town last year. I am very grateful for all the hard work and partnership working which goes on for months in the background to make this excellent show. It was great to see all of the fantastic entries across all 43 classes. It was so nice to enable people to take part and it was wonderful how people came together to celebrate the achievement and talent of their peers.”

“I am also so very grateful to the exhibitors, judges and members of the public who made generous donations for the flowers, vegetables and produce which was auctioned at the close of the show for my for my chosen charity, County Durham and Darlington NHS Trust – Bishop Auckland Hospital, with a total raised of £337.04”

Kids Corner classes included Mr. Potato Head and Friends, Wonkey Fruit and Vegetables, Decorated Biscuit, Garden Collage picture, and Make a flower out of recycled materials. All classes had exceptional entries, with additional awards

going to the Wallace Gang, who help on their dads allotment for their gigantic pumpkin, and Etherley Lane Primary school for their fantastic recycled flowers, and garden collage log!

A huge thank you goes to all those who helped to organise the show, Beryl Anderson, Chris Davidson and Liz Drake, and the Auckland Project who were delighted to see their hard work pay off having been preparing for a number of months. A special thanks goes to Etherly Lane Primary School for supporting all of the Kids corner classes with exceptional entries.

In addition to the show, the Council have had a find the ‘’Show Crow’ Trail in the town, here various scarecrows are hiding the in the windows of businesses, to help encourage show visitors to visit businesses in the town, and the closing date has been extended to Monday 4th October, to give food festival attendees the opportunity to see how many they can find.

 

Green fingered success for Bishop Auckland Town Council’s 3rd Horticultural and Produce Show

It was another impressive year for the show with over 400 visitors flocking into the Town Hall, while judges praised the high standard of entries during a challenging growing season for many local gardeners.

There were plenty of gorgeous blooms and impressive vegetables to look at with growers from Bishop Auckland and around the area exhibiting in the show.  With forty different categories, including everything from chrysanthemums to cauliflowers, there was plenty of scope for competitors to pick up a prize.

Thanks to Tam Mayor from Auckland Project who has been working for weeks with different groups, the children’s section was particularly busy with over 40 ‘garden in a seed tray’ entries, photographs, paintings and poems.

Those who helped to organise the show, Trevor Hogg, Joan Hogg, Chris Davidson and Liz Drake were delighted to see their hard work pay off having been preparing for a number of months.

The Mayor of Bishop Auckland Adam Zair praised the show saying:

“It was fantastic to see so many vegetable entries, beautiful flowers, children’s entries and home baked goods.”

“I am also pleased to announce that left over produce was auctioned at the end of the show, and thanks to the generosity of the exhibitors just over £250 was raised for my chosen charity the Great North Air Ambulance.”

Flowers and Vegetables that were left over were also used in an ‘Invention Test’ at St Anne’s Church as part of the ‘Encounters with Hope’ themed weekend of prayer at the church.

Bishop blooms once again at Town Council’s 2nd Horticultural and Produce show

With thirty one different classes this year, including various vegetables, flowers, home baked goods and a children’s section, Bishop Auckland Town Hall was transformed into a show of very high standards, as it draws in over three hundred entries.

The judges were particularly pleased by the exceptional quality of the exhibitor’s entries and agreed that the winners had been a difficult choice.

The Mayor of Bishop Auckland Ann Golightly praised the show saying:

“I was thrilled to see the fantastic vegetable entries, beautiful flowers and home baked goods and it was fantastic to see such a huge turnout of exhibitors.”

‘Thank you to all of those who took the time to come along and enter the show, and a special thank you to the stewards who made the show possible, without the help of Liz Drake, Chris Davidson, Trevor Hogg, Bobby Latcham and Gordon Hodgson the show could not have taken place.”

Produce was auctioned at the end of the show and thanks to the generosity of the exhibitors just over £200 was raised for the Mayor’s charity the Butterwick Hospice.  Vegetables that were left over were donated to the Woodhouse Close food bank.