Following weeks of hard work and preparations by staff, volunteers and students, we held our sixth Christmas Fayre at the walled gardens on Saturday 19th November.
You can see Jane and Avril ready for the crowds by the fresh vegetable and fruit stall.
Led by Libby, there were stalls outside selling our reindeer (a herd of 50 had gathered over the weeks), and other products such as wooden and paper Xmas tree decorations; bird feeders in cereal carrier bags; confetti and pot pourri and Christmas Wreaths. Thanks goes to Hilary, Liz and Rosie who helped out here.The roundhouse was occupied by Helen, Pat, Richard and Stan, where face painting was available, plus mugs of hot apple juice or mulled wine to warm the ‘cockles of your heart!’ Hilary and Trevor before 1pm ‘ready for customers’.
The glass house was decorated with posters and scores of visitors were able to enjoy hot refreshments served all afternoon by Jean and Chris. Here you can see Chris and Jean (and Ray, hiding behind Cathy) eating lunch before the crowds arrived.
For those young at heart, there was a seasonal treasure hunt, and a name the teddy competition, followed by ‘make your own snowman out of marsh-mallows’. Thanks to Sheila and Mike for these activities!
Inside the warmth of the education room, there was a home-made cake stall, and ‘Guess the weight of the cake competition’; thanks to Rosemary and Cathy here; plus Emma’s table of cushions and sweets. Ann and Emma with the cushions.
Geoff and Alison delighted over their Christmas cushion purchase.
Again, a huge success with our tombola stall (thanks to Sally, Rachael and Anni); and the raffle (thanks to Annie and Trevor), and the Craft Stall, hosted by Sylvia and Avril.
We were over-whelmed to announce that around 240 visitors passed through our gates, and over £1780 was made on the day – which exceeds any previous takings by far!
We mustn’t forget Ray, who was on the gate, and put up all the signs to the event, and to Ian, who sat at the gate, clicking a counter, and welcoming friends, old and new.
This has been our most successful event to date – and we were thankful that the weather held too. We are hopeful that this community interest and enthusiasm in what we do here, will go some way to support our next development phase, which will be to build new facilities, including a café and shop, so that all can enjoy our natural environment here.
