Glossop Gardeners

Having met due to an interest in, or some might say a passion for plants, Beryl Coyne, Chris Harris, Sue Astles and Val Evans, each with very different gardens, started to think about how to open a gardening club in Glossop. They had soon enlisted the help of Ron Astles, Christine and Ian Simpson and together as a group began to put together a plan... which might appeal to the garden lovers of Glossop. Mike, landlord of the Friendship Inn, kindly offered his support and even offered to sponsor the room costs for the first public meeting and slowly things began to take shape. It was realised at an early stage that we needed to look for funding to support our group and Chris & Sue put in hours of work seeking out how we might go about this. An application was made to Derbyshire Community Foundation as we felt we could make a case for seeking support to get the group establised as gardening is such an essential part of any community. Posters were designed, local newspapers and radio were contacted and Bradbury Community House was booked for early May, timed to coincide with the new beginnings of the gardening year. Little did we realise that Manchester United would be playing in the Champions League, but what's a little competition when it comes to plant lovers, and even the pounding rain didn't stop the enthusiasm. We were a little worried when there were only two people in the room fifteen minutes before the start but by 7.30 the room was packed and we had to search for extra chairs. Our speaker Frank Ashton was looking a little worried before the crowds arrived as he thought he would be talking to himself. He needn't have worried though! Here Sue is seen addressing the meeting. After such a response we couldn't wait to form Glossop Gardeners and arranged our first meeting at Glossop Cricket Club in September 2009 and we weren't disappointed by the turnout. Some of our members arriving for the first meetingRead More