Celebrating 100 years of Horncastle's Gardens & Allotments Association

Kathy Breton with her basket which won 1st Prize for Mixed Garden Vegetables.

Horncastle’s Gardens & Allotments Association have celebrated their 100th birthday this year, a little late due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the Stanhope Hall’s closure in 2019, with their centenary show over the weekend.

The association’s inaugural Meeting was actually in 1918, and the first official show was held on Wednesday September, 17, 1919 at The Old Theatre in Dog Kennel Yard, situated off St Lawrence Street.

The centenary show, which had to be postponed for the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, was held in memory of the Association’s long-standing president Mr Harold Ward, who died in 2020 during the pandemic, and Mr Robert Bell took over the postition.

John Bray won 1st prize in Class 30, Heaviest Marrow.

At Saturday and Sunday’s show, at the Stanhope Hall in Horncastle, there were 31 exhibitors who entered the various classes for vegetables, flowers, pot plants and baking, and there was also a special centenary class, with a £100 first prize.

This was won by chairman Mike Effield, which was a display featuring pot plants, flowers, and cake.

Secretary Pat Rowatt said: “We feel we’ve achieved something by getting to our 100th year, and people were commenting saying we’d done a grand job so we’re happy with that.

"Our centenary display was very well received, with lots of people reading it and seeing what we’ve done so thank you to Mr Bell for putting that together.”