60th Anniversary Celebration
The Catisfield & District Horticultural Society was formed on Friday 7 October 1960 when the first meeting was held. The founding of the Society was by popular demand following a Flower Show that Dr Hugh Carling and three other local people had been asked to run at the St Columba Church Fete in June of the previous year. So was born the Society and later a Club that many of the residents of the Catisfield area and further afield have enjoyed ever since.
1960 - 2020 and beyond
The Club and its predecessor the Horticultural Society celebrated 60 years last October on 7 October 2020, but due to Covid 19 we were unable to celebrate that notable date until it was safe to do so on 12 August 2021 and in a larger venue than our home venue of Catisfield Memorial Hall to allow a lot more social distancing because of the larger and more airy venue (The Great Barn, Titchfield - photo above). We had 50 Members attend together with 11 honored guests.
The evening began with our members arriving at 7pm and being welcomed with a glass wine or a soft drink. The reception area had been beautifully decorated by Jan and her team with 60th anniversary balloons and the small eats were laid out on the tables and looked lovely in the dim and Members were encouraged to enjoy the buffet immediately so that things were well underway when our guests started to arrive around 7.15pm.
We had a good selection of raffle prizes on offer and we are most grateful to Jan for putting the prizes together with some very kind donations from members. We raised just over £200 from the raffle and when the raffle took place there was a good spread of winners.
As the reception started to wind down everyone made their way into the theatre and the Mayor, Councilor Pamela Bryant was introduced to everyone. The Mayor was then asked to present on behalf of the Club the Honorary President’s Badge to our new President Doug Glading.
The Mayor then presented The Club’s RHS Banksian Medal and Certificate to Theresa Duggan for winning the on-line gardening competition last year.
When those awards were completed each of the honoured guests was introduced in turn and presented with their copy of the 74 page Miscellany filled with information and images from the past 60 years. In addition to the Mayor and Mayoress these guests were: previous Chairman David Hawkesworth, (other previous chairmen Alan Martin and John Rustell who both live locally were not able to attend but have received their copies of the book); Richard Bridgland (son of the late John Bridgland); Nick Morrish Chairman of the Catisfield Hall Committee; Pat Sutton and Nicky Cousins from St Margaret’s Nursery; Kevin Fraser from Titchfield Festival Theatre (owners of the Great Barn).
Following these preseentations Doug (left) and Glenn (right) gave a joint talk on the history of Catisfield & District.
The evening ended with all members present being given their own copy of the Miscellany.
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