North West Britain In Bloom judges will be visiting Alderley Edge on Tuesday, 24th July to assess the town's third entry into the Britain in Bloom competition.
Judge Mel Kirby will be returning this year and his fellow judge, Sarah Hewitt, will be making her first appraisal of our entry.
They will be given a tour of the village starting at outside Alderley Edge Community Primary School at approximately 1.15pm. They will then visit Ryleys School and Chorley Hall Lane allotment before heading to the Hough to visit Peter Woollam's garden.
From there they will be taken to Castle Rock and the Wizard's Well before meeting the National Trust representative Chris Widger.
Afterwards they will be dropped off in the village centre and walk down London Road to the Woodland by Waitrose before finishing with afternoon tea.
The judges will meet Leslie Cox, Chair of Alderley Edge In Bloom, Christine Munro (Secretary), Bev Chapman (Treasurer).
It is s hoped that Craig Browne and Rachel Grantham from the Parish Council can attend along with Fenton Simpson, the site manager of the Chorley Hall Lane allotment.
Volunteer Kelvin Briggs said "A major focus for the Bloom group this year has been taking on an allotment at Chorley Hall Lane to grow vegetables for the RVS luncheon club. Volunteers have transformed the site with new raised beds constructed, an old shed has been recycled and a new fence erected. The project has been a big success with a huge variety of crops and flowers planted and blooming for the judges visit.
Litter picking has continued to be a major activity in and around the village with a good number of new volunteers out and about filling up bin bags. So many people have commented on how tidy the village is these days, but it's an ongoing battle to keep it so. Alderley Edge in Bloom teamed up with The Edge Association volunteers for a day of litter picking and Waitrose staff are helping with their carpark.
London Road has been the scene for all year round planting and volunteers have been out every night during the amazing sunny weather watering hanging baskets and planters. It's been a great team effort with many shops and business's doing their bit to beautify the village. The group has just been awarded a grant by the Manchester Airport Community Trust fund to purchase watering equipment."
The judges last year indicated they would be really interested in seeing the view from The Edge so this has been included on the route together with a stop off at Peter Woolham's half acre organic ornamental kitchen garden at The Hough with over 200 edible varieties on show.
The judges award marks for community engagement and the work with local school gardening groups, the luncheon club, the Allotment and Gardens Society will hopefully all tick the box.
Last year, Alderley Edge was awarded a silver gilt award in the Small Towns section. Additionally, Chorley Hall Lane Allotments were awarded 'Thriving' by the Royal Horticultural Society. This is Level 4 award award in the RHS 'It's Your Neighbourhood' competition which runs alongside Britain in Bloom and awards community groups for cleaning up and greening up their local environment.
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In addition, the allotments in Chorley Hall Lane are looking exceptionally thriving and tidy and deserve another commendation. Let us hope that we have no destruction before the judging.