Walsham le Willows Open Gardens Weekend hailed ‘the best yet’

The 43rd year of the annual Walsham le Willows Open Gardens Weekend over the August Bank Holiday proved to be a “bumper” event and has been acclaimed as “the best yet”.

As one of the longest-running and most successful charity events of its kind in East England it was attended by hundreds of visitors thanks to the great weather with the overflow car park opened on both the Sunday and the Monday.

There were a host of attractions on offer for visitors with a total of 35 plus gardens and spaces this year ranging from large to minuscule … and a traffic island planted to celebrate the 40th year … with each one making a unique contribution to the event.

Funds from the weekend are still being examined and counted with those attending complementing the organising committee.

One person was reported as saying: “This is such a well organised event, how do you do it…?. And another added: “We go to a lot of open gardens events but this is by far the best.”

John Stebbing, the secretary of the Open Gardens Trust and a member of the organising committee, said: “We had a fantastic weekend … the best yet.

“The atmosphere was superb starting with our traditional Friday night party to thank the hundreds of local people who make the event happen followed by a day of setting up and then on Sunday the visitors poured in and again on Monday.

“Both days we had to open up our overflow car park which is an indicator that it was a bumper year a d we ran out of cakes which says it all.

“Tuesday, a massive clear up and now we await our treasurer’s findings as regards the financial success but the main report is that we and our hundreds of visitors had a lot of fun.”

Funds raised are for village causes and for the maintenance of the fabric of the local church. So far over £350,000 has been raised for the 15th century St Mary’s the Virgin.

There was a bell ringing demonstrations, an art exhibition and  sale together with floral art in the church with musical entertainment and  hundreds of hours went into a Flower Power project, literally thousands of crocheted and knitted flowers attached to netting, adorning the wall of the churchyard.

Other attractions included a Village Market, bird’s of prey in the churchyard and giant tortoises roaming one of the open gardens plus refreshments in the village hall.