Goring wins another gold at Bloom awards contest

GORING won its ninth gold in this year’s Britain in Bloom competition.

Representatives of the village’s bloom group attended a ceremony in Woodley for the Thames and Chilterns region.

They were awarded gold in the small town category for the third year running having achieved a score of more than 85 per cent overall in three sections, horticulture, environment and community.

The judges were Kyle Dowling, the assistant parks manager at Henley Town Council and Steve Catanach, leader of Amersham.

The pair visited the village for two hours in July and were taken on a tour led by Stephanie Bridle, who chairs Goring in Bloom.

They visited the Withymead Nature Reserve where they met Pete Morton, head warden for the past five years. They then moved to Goring station, where they looked at a new plaque, which illustrates routes which are accessible for walkers, cyclists and wheelchair users.

At the top of the High Street, they observed the newly painted green bridge, which had had graffiti removed ahead of the tour. As they came into the centre of the village, the judges spoke with residents and businesses who had decorated the village with hanging baskets and planters and removed weeds and litter.

Near the Arcade in High Street, the judges were shown a patch of land which was transformed into a pollinating corridor, featuring flowers and a bug house.

Refreshments and a presentation took place in the garden room of the village hall, where members of the bloom group and other local organisations assembled. Judge comments for the award ceremony said: “Goring combines heritage, floral displays and environmental projects, each bringing positive benefits to the local community and leaving a lasting impression that enhances the visitor experience.

“The impressive work of the Goring Gap Environmental Organisation should be commended, helping bolster the local environmental quality of Goring.

“Community cohesion and civic pride were in abundance throughout the tour, a tangible benefit that being in Bloom brings. Well, done to all those involved.”

Mrs Bridle said: “We are so very pleased. It has been a very difficult year because of the growing conditions — the weather and the horrendous problem with weeds in the gutters and the streets. It’s hard to keep the village looking tidy in those circumstances.

“We are never super confident when we enter because we know where we don’t quite come up to scratch but the committee could not thank the volunteers, residents and businesses enough. We could not do this without their efforts, willingness and good spirits. It really is a team effort.

“A lot of it is out of our control because we can only do as much as we can do in our area of responsibility and we rely on the council and other entities to do their bit as well. Generally, it has worked that but it’s becoming more difficult with cutbacks.

“We haven’t celebrated yet but we will definitely have a get-together at the end of the year before we start planning for next year.”

Mrs Bridle said the group hopes to complete a number of tasks throughout the village in time for next year’s Bloom judging which she hopes will help them to retain their gold award.

She said: “We have a few ideas in our heads and we plan to concentrate quite a lot on the station. We are revamping the border on platform one.

“We need to review the planting on platform four too because they are getting a bit busy there, which is going to be quite a big job.

“We are planting herb containers and we are going to encourage people to pick them by putting information and recipes there to inspire them to cook.”

Meanwhile, volunteers will refresh the plants in High Street which includes weeding, deadheading and trimming thanks to an £80 maintenance grant from the parish council.

The group will also carry out weeding, trimming and the removal of dead plants and shrubs as necessary on the land in the northwest corner of the Gardiner recreation ground. Dead plants or shrubs will be replaced with similar species to maintain the current design and the bed will be edged to keep it neat during the gardening season.

There are currently no plans to make any changes to the garden, which was introduced in 2014.