Post War Years

After the Second World War the Society once again resumed the annual shows with, for some years, increasing success. In 1954 the show was opened by the celebrated BBC. Radio personalities Elsie and Doris Waters (Gert and Daisy). The Parish magazine for September 1954 contains the following comment:- “In spite of what has been described as the worst growing season in memory, we were all pleased to see that the majority of the exhibits in our Flower Show were all up to standard.

Indeed some of the vegetable classes received entries of a remarkably high quality which could not have been bettered in any show. Flowers too had been carefully protected from wind and rain and were a joy to behold. Our famous visitors, Gert and Daisy, were very impressed and they know a thing or two about horticulture!”.

Amongst the officials of that era we see the names of the people who built the Society and guided it through those early years:- Tom Day, father of our President Miss Jean Day; Arthur Cockram and his father, W H A Cockram before him; Cecil Allen, Fred Piñcott, Arthur Cotterell, Mr and Mrs Freemantle, Edward Watkins and Mrs Kathleen Cran. The continuity achieved by the long associations involved has been of great assistance in maintaining the well being of the Society. The appendix shows the names of those who have filled the principal offices over the years.