Green-fingered villagers cultivate gold

Green-fingered villagers are celebrating winning coveted awards in the South West region RHS Britain in Bloom (BIB) competition, despite a summer and spring drought.

The Bere Alston in Bloom (BAIB) organising team has proudly announced it won an overall gold award for the whole village and three ‘outstanding’ awards (for certain areas of the village) in the regional section of the national competition.

The competition recognises the most beautiful, tidy, horticulturally impressive and environmentally and ecologically friendly villages, towns and cities in the country with proven community input.

The ‘outstanding’ accolades were specifically for the village’s arrangements under the ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ section, which rewards community involvement, at Quarry Corner, the remembrance garden and the railway station, in the best large village category.

The village has an enviable award-winning record in the competition. In their first year the team won silver gilt, followed by four consecutive golds in 2022, 2023, 2024 and 2025.

And this year again impressed the judges with its sense of humour by including light-hearted scarecrows throughout the village to scoop gold in the champion of champions category.

Thel Bere Alston In Bloom team comprises Jeanette Englefield (chair), Liz McQueen (deputy chair), Dr Frances Howard and Lynn Faulkner (allotment manager).

Frances (an ecologist) who had taken a break from the team, stepped into the breach just before a BIB judge toured the village and resumed her usual role of an ecological auditor.

She said: “It was a week before the judge came and I was asked to carry out the green audit, which is part of our submitted entry. I then presented it to the judge.

“The big success is the swift population. We put up nest boxes and encouraged other people to do the same. There are now ten boxes and quite regularly there’ve been more than 30 birds spotted. The good thing is that swifts do come back to the same nests the following year.

“The team did amazingly well, considering the hot dry weather from spring through summer. It’s a huge logistical job watering tubs and baskets in the public areas of the village. This was vital to make sure everything keeps growing and then looks particularly good for the judging and makes the village attractive for longer.

Liz said: “We’re thrilled to win the gold award and the four outstanding titles. The ‘In Your Neighbourhood’ awards are hard to get because they’re focal points and need extra work. It’s a great achievement and reward for the Bere in Bloom team and the village.

“We had to overcome the driest spring and summer with lots of watering. The tubs and baskets are especially hard to keep watered. Our team worked hard lugging heavy watering cans everywhere. There was also a lot of grass cutting and planting by the team and other volunteers, for which we’re grateful.

“We do find that once the village is looking impressive through the efforts of others, residents respect it more and tend to look after it.”

The use of scarecrows to enliven the village was a way of involving more residents who might not have gardening skills and sparked the imaginations of children and groups.