Gardening Group Plans

It was a grey day this August when 44 members of the gardening group set off by coach to visit Melbourne Hall & Gardens in Derbyshire. The hall is the home of Lord and Lady Ralph Kerr and was once the home of Victorian Prime Minister, William Lamb, who as 2nd Viscount Melbourne gave his name to the city of Melbourne in Australia.
We arrived around 11:30am and as the hall didn’t to open to visitors until 1:30pm we had time to explore the 13th century church opposite the entrance, visit the various shops and units in the Visitor Centre or to take the short walk into the village of Melbourne itself. They had opened the tearoom early so quite a few made full use of the facilities before setting off to explore. In the tearoom they had reserved seating especially for us with plates showing Janet’s name on and how many places.
At the appointed time we all gathered at the entrance to the hall and were split into two groups for a fascinating guided tour by some very knowledgeable ladies who gave us an in-depth history of the hall and the family and its links to Lord Byron and Lady Caroline Lamb. The tour took around 45 minutes and then we set off to explore the gardens. It was trying its best to rain whilst we took in the broad sweeps of lawn, avenues and unexpected vistas, so brollies were the order of the day. Having said this for those that made the effort to walk around the different parts of the gardens there were a lot to see including the crowning feature of the garden which is the wrought iron arbour known as ‘The Birdcage’ erected in 1706-8 for £120.
Thanks to Janet and Judith for organising an excellent day out.
Now that Autumn is here our visits out in the field come to an end for this year and our next two months are speaker meetings with the first of these being on Tuesday 20th October when our first speaker will be Dr Andrew Ward from Norwell Nurseries. At present his subject is unconfirmed but he is hoping that some of our members will return the pleasure by visiting his open day on Sunday 18th Oct at Norwell, up near Newark, any time between 1 and 4.00p.m.
Our meeting on the 20th will be at 2.00p.m. at John Godber Centre, Hucknall.
Our November meeting will be on Tuesday 18th November when our speaker Steve from Floreal creations, Caunton will be coming along to show us how to compile our winter hanging baskets.
Both these meetings will be £3 admission to cover the cost of room rental, tea and biscuits plus the cost of the speaker.
Chief Weeder – Alan Snape