A POPULAR public house, locally famous for its cuisine, has won an award for its floral arrangements from Northumbria in Bloom.
Imogen and Gavin Bowater, who own and run the pub had already begun to decorate the building with flower baskets when villager Sonya Bree became involved after a conversation at one of the Resident Association’s regular coffee mornings.
Sonya said, “It all came about when I was asked at the coffee morning if the village still entered the Northumbria In Bloom competition because apparently it had won an award in 2022. I didn’t know anything about that so looked into it.”
Sonya emailed NIB for more information but discovered it was too late to enter the village category only to receive an email suggesting they enter a ‘stand alone’ entry. Sonya and other members of the Residents’ Association decided that the Duke of York in the village would be the perfect place to enter. Imogen and Gavin had already begun to put up hanging baskets filled with flowers.
“We decided to enter the pub as a thank you for its use for residents of Fir Tree and Harperley and the Association decided to fund the entry fee,” explained Sonya.
And so, the residents began in earnest because time was running out. Resident, Steve Hodgson who is well known in the world of flower cultivation, entering and winning prizes at local shows, was one of the first to offer help and he supplied ribs and flowers, followed by others, including Neil Armstrong who also donated the soil. Along with Neil’s father, Peter and Maureen Wilkinson, another resident, villagers pulled together and did their very best.
On Wednesday (September 17th), Sonya and Steve attended the Northumbria in Bloom awards held at the Federation Breweries in Gateshead. There were five entries in the pub category and they were delighted to be awarded the Silver Medal.
“We were absolutely over the moon,” said Sonya. “And so thankful to all of the volunteers who helped out as well as Gavin and Imogen from the Duke of York who allowed us to enter their pub. We are now looking forward to entering the village category next year with lots of activities planned to make our village bloom’.
