Visitors flock to Vale village to see open gardens

MORE than a thousand visitors flocked to a Vale village to see its picturesque open gardens on display.

People from all over the world arrived to celebrate the Ashton-under-Hill Open Gardens festival on Saturday and Sunday (June 9 and 10) and had the opportunity to explore each of the 24 gardens on show.

At time of publication, organisers did not know the total they had raised but said the event made about the £8,000 mark.

Profits made from the event are shared between the village’s St Barbara’s Church and the village hall committee.

John Dodge, village resident and chairman of the Open Gardens Festival committee, said the two-day event had been a big success.

"We were quite lucky with the weather with Friday and Monday being a washout but luckily the weekend for us was dry and we had more than 1,000 visitors come to the village over the weekend.

"During the festival we usually get the visitors to fiull out a form and give us some comments and everyone was so nice about the festival and said how they enjoyed it.

"We try to make it a very friendly village here and I think we did that over the weekend. people came to me saying the gardens looked lovely and the festival had given them ideas for their own gardens."

Buy photos» Judith Brimm and Christine Shaw of Ashton Garden Plant Centre sell their wares. 2412009MMR4

Buy photos» Joshua, eight, Rosie and Chris Oates wait for one of the buses to ferry them around the gardens. 2412009MMR3

Buy photos» Audrey Mckay and Christine Attree came all the way from Ruislip to see the gardens. 2412009MMR2

Buy photos» Alastair Humphrey dips his toe into the swimming pond at Morland to check the temperature. 2412009MMR1

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