I was totally delighted to pop into the Cornelly Community centre in August , for the annual horticultural show. This event has taken place for many many years, organised by Mrs Vanessa Evans.
Vanessa explained that the show was restarted back in 2012 with herself, her late husband Roly and Rachel Brent – it was first held in the Cornelly Methodist Church and thanks to grants from the Community council, it proved so popular the following year it was moved to the Community Centre, where it has been held ever since.
The show is now going from strength to strength each year, and it receives around 300 entries every year.
To see so many local people supporting Vanessa to make this show such a great success was truly inspiring. This was my first visit to the show, and I was delighted to see so many people from the Community there.
There was a huge array of home grown vegetables, arts, crafts, cakes, and even a section for the children – and I have to say, I was amazed at the talent of people in our lovely village.
One of the childrens’ awards went to Jack Lister, who was there along side his mother and other siblings. Jack’s mum Michelle told me they had only lived in the village for around 12 months, and loved living here. Jack had asked his mum if he could make something for the show, and so he decided to make this wonderful crown. Michelle told me how proud she was of Jack, and how he was the one who wanted to enter the competition, his brother Ryan also won 3rd place in the pebble painting competition, and they all said they had had a great day.
As I walked around all the wonderful tables I bumped into Julie Raikes Shephard, (pictured above) who had won 1st place in the preservatives competition with her pickled beetroot. She was absolutely delighted, and had also nailed a 3rd place for her rocket potatoes.
I was overwhelmed at how important this show is to the community, and many people were keen to share and showcase the lovely they made , grew or simply created, painted etc.
I am ashamed to say this was my first visit to the show – the skill of the people in this village in incredible. I particularly loved a painting by Arwyn James, it blew my mind, she is one very talented and modest young lady, who I genuinely do not believe realises just how talented she is!
This was very much a family affair – Arwyn’s Mum, Helen Cherry won 3rd place in the cake decoration, her brother Cameron won an award for his fruit turtle, and Helen’s mother and step father Gordon and June Solomon also entered the competition. Gordon had made the most amazing mirror, hand crafted from beach wood, and Gordon said it had taken him hours to make – it was absolutely beautiful.
It was lovely seeing so many people from the community there, including our very own Ricky and Dave Edwards, past owners of the New house. Ricky is such a beautiful lady, well known and well loved by everyone in the Community. They are now enjoying retirement – and I found them sitting down having a nice cup of tea, along side some lovely home made cakes, accompanied by their daughter Kelly and they Grandaughter Tia.
I couldnt help thinking to myself, what skills do our local people have that not many know about? Martin Overfield is the perfect example of that, one of his skills is making the old gypsy caravans, not only does he built every last part of it by hand, he also makes all the tiny furniture inside!
His wife told me that after Martin retired, he found himself bored after many many years of being a Barber, once he had hung up his scissors, he needed a new hobby, and now she says he spends hours and hours on crafting – it’s an amazing skill.
I must admit I wish I had gone a bit earlier, and had the chance to really study all that was on offer, from the young to the old, this really was a community event that brought the village together, and I think next year I may even enter a little cake myself.
I hope we can help publicise this event more thoroughly, and get more of the village to visit , you all like me will be surprised just how much talent is on offer.
There is so much hard work that goes on behind the scenes, every year to make this event a success, I know this is very much a passion of Vanessa’s and all the people that help her make this such a great event – Vanessa said she was delighted that this years show had been such a great success,
I myself would like to say a massive thank you to Vanessa and everyone that helped put this Horticultural show together – I will definitely be helping it get more community support.
To those incredibly talented residents who won an award and equally talented folks who didn’t, my thanks and congratulations to you all.
The good news, there is always next year – and I for one can’t wait! I hope it is bigger than ever.
