Cumbria In Bloom: Growing Neighbourhoods

25th Anniversary

Cumbria in Bloom is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and as part of the build-up is holding a special seminar on March 20th.

This is being held at Rydal Hall with the express aim of looking at the future of the local campaign. Article on the Seminar.

To this end, all the competition participants – past, present or even future – have been invited to the event St. Bees in bloom when one of the main speakers will be Roger Burnett, chairman of judges for Britain in Bloom.

Iain Turnbull, the head gardener at Rydal Hall, will give a guided tour of the recently restored gardens which were designed by Lakeland’s internationally famous landscape architect Thomas H. Mawson.

During the afternoon there will be a series of workshops enabling delegates to join in discussions about the running of the local campaign.

Cumbria in Bloom is the regional organisation forming part of the National Britain in Bloom campaign. The voluntary group was set-up in 1985 with the aim of encouraging community involvement in working to enhance the appearance of the county’s local towns and villages.

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Over the intervening years over one third of villages and towns have benefited from being part of the local campaign.

The annual Cumbria in Bloom competition includes numerous sections providing opportunities for many different organisations to take part.

The main part involves a competition for towns, villages and hamlets with categories based on size of population.

Separate parts of the campaign give opportunities for schools and young people to take part in a painting competition and in he Young Peoples Award given annually for environmental or horticultural schemes.

Many local businesses make great efforts to provide attractive surroundings to their premises. The competition recognises this with a number of awards in these sections.

The section designed to involve smaller neighbourhoods has been revised in 2010. Small scale projects or small neighbourhoods of interested people are encouraged to work together with the aim of improving the appearance of their localities.

This often leads to other areas of community participation including entry of the local village or town into the main part of he campaign.

The Tidy Village competition is aimed at villages and hamlets that feel they cannot meet the full criteria of the main competition but would still like some means of taking part.

Further particulars can be obtained from the administrator/secretary Elaine Dickinson on 01900 63880.

25th Anniversary Seminar - Rydal Hall

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