A clutch of awards for blooming Battle

BATTLE’S beautiful blooms were rewarded with a number of accolades at this year’s Southern Water South and South East In Bloom Awards.
Chris Collins presents Jenny Green with Saxonwood Courts award at the South and South East In Bloom Awards 2013Chris Collins presents Jenny Green with Saxonwood Courts award at the South and South East In Bloom Awards 2013
Chris Collins presents Jenny Green with Saxonwood Courts award at the South and South East In Bloom Awards 2013

Flowering fanatics across the region soaked up a number of top awards, including Saxonwood Court, which won the outstanding award in the Champion of Champions It’s Your Neighbourhoods category, for entrants which have consistently performed at the highest level over many years.

Almonry Garden won gold in the Small Park category and Battle Cemetery scooped silver gilt and was overall winner in the Cemetery category.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The town scooped a Silver Gilt in the Small Town Category, with Silver Gilt-winning Cranbrook narrowly pipping the town as category winner.

More than 330 people from 18 regions attended the awards ceremony at The Assembly Hall in Royal Tunbridge Wells, last week.

Celebrity green-fingered gardener, Chris Collins, presented all entrants with a certificate and an engraved glass trophy to the main winners.

Jenny Green collected Saxonwood Court’s award.

She said: “The whole community is so garden-minded and we’re all very proud to get the award.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“There are people aged 80 years and over who are on their knees gardening – they are inspirational.”

The root themes of the Southern Water-sponsored competition are horticulture and gardening, environmental responsibility and community participation.

Andy Shaddick, public affairs manager at Southern Water, said: “This year’s competition has been bigger and better than ever before, with the amount of entries totalling a record number of 353.

“As ever, people put a great deal of effort into their entries and it is wonderful to witness communities pulling together.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“We are committed to being an active partner in the communities we serve and we are proud to be long-standing sponsors of South & South East in Bloom.”

South & South East in Bloom chairman, Peter Holman, said: “It’s been a record breaking year and my thanks go to all those who have worked so hard on their entry.

“The environmental side of the campaign is especially important as we look back over our hottest summer since 2006 and it reminds us that we still need to garden responsibly and, wherever possible, reduce our reliance on water hungry plants and the need for regular irrigation.”