A GRAND Flower Festival in memory of Norman and Betty Deacon is currently taking place in the Parish church, Tow Law – and it is stunning.
Norman Deacon served as Church warden at the church of St Phillip and St James in the friendly hill-top town for decades and it is where he also organised and staged his own flower festivals, beginning in 1988. It built up a reputation for producing the most beautiful flower festivals in the area.
Norman was renowned around the country as a talented and inspirational flower arranger – and teacher – giving countless demonstrations. Both Norman and Betty were, arguably, the most famous and best loved couple in the town. Norman for the work he did in and for the church but in many other areas and Betty who was awarded the MBE for her 50 years service working in the town’s standalone Post Office.
Norman and Betty passed away in the last few years and they are greatly missed, especially because, as the Festival programme says, it has been very difficult to fill their ‘shoes’ and find others who can offer their skills, enthusiasm and dedication.
This display – ‘Norman’s Garden’ – stopped people in their tracks! There he is!
The couple are very much missed but their nephew, Neville, helped the event by bringing little touches that meant a lot, including their wedding album and a floral vase.
The Flower Festival was the idea of the ladies who had in previous years, created floral displays for Norman’s events, wanted to stage just one more festival to pay a final tribute to the couple who really were ‘Mr and Mrs Tow Law’. Of course it is not on as grand a scale as Norman would have organised but he would have loved it all the same.
In one display that showed the lives of Norman and Betty, there were little crocheted dolls of the couple – Betty outside the Post Office and Norman in his garden at home. Norman, a brick-layer by trade, built their house himself and there was evidence of that too in the display. A fantastic insight into a lifetime in Tow Law – absolute genius!
As I wandered around, looking at the gorgeous displays, I had a feeling that Norman and Betty were there too, perhaps with Norman plucking the odd flower out of one display and placing it elsewhere. All of the displays positively screamed the love and devotion felt by their creators for this much-missed couple. There can’t be many people in the town who weren’t touched by them in one way or another over the years.
Over in the church hall, the ladies were offering teas and were manning fundraising stalls where another warm welcome was guaranteed.
Every section of the Tow Law community was represented with many local businesses and individuals sponsoring the displays and the arrangers who made them were: Carol Oulton, Carol Heslop, Susan Anderson, Pam Oliver, Linda Ayre, Linda Butterfield, Joan Coughtrey, Samantha Wheeler, Lynn Moralee, Paul Willey, Doris Carr, Tow Law Community Centre – Denise Thornton, Rainbows and Brownies and the children Blessed John Ducket RC school and Tow Law Millennium School.
Well done to each and every one for the hard work that has gone in to not only creating these fantastic displays but also the fundraising that has taken place over the last few months. You all did Norman and Betty proud and it is a poignant reminder of all they did for their town.
The Flower Festival continues today (Sunday) between 11am and 5pm and tomorrow between 10am and 1pm. FREE ENTRY – donations accepted for the upkeep of the church.
Tow Law Football Club.
