Claverley Flower Festival celebrates children’s TV through the ages - in pictures
A village's floristry skills blossomed at its annual flower festival.
Residents and visitors of Claverley enjoyed spectacular floral arrangements at the All Saints’ Church.
It was the 43rd annual festival and this year’s theme was ‘Children’s TV Through the Ages’.
From Peter Rabbit to the Magic Roundabout, the ‘Claverley Flower Girls’ put together numerous colourful displays for people to enjoy. The flower girls put on the displays each year and vote for a theme amongst themselves.
They are a group of local ladies, aged from their late teens to their 80s.
Reverend Garry Ward said the weekend went really well and they had lots of visitors marvelling at the creations.
“The displays and the structures were fantastic. One lady made a life-sized Worzel Gummidge and Aunt Sally models from the old TV programme for her display," he said.
“It was really colourful this year. A lot of visitors were commenting that they recognised or remembered the TV shows from when they were children.
“We had children’s TV themes playing in the background. It created a lot of happy memories for people.”
Most of the displays had intricate structures and small building parts accompanying them and Revd Ward said this meant other members of the family were roped in to help. There is usually quite a lot of partners and husbands involved because of structures that are needed in the displays. They very often help out with the handy-work.
“The Magic Roundabout display especially had a big structure to it, and it’s great," he added.
“People usually start to bring in the structures for their displays at the start of the week and put them up. Then they bring in the flowers at the end of the week so they are fresh for the weekend.
“We use all spaces in the church, all the little nooks and crannies.
“We have moveable pews so we are able to rearrange the layout so that they can all be seen."
Garry said the whole community gets involved. Children from the local school made clay models and small flower arrangements, and there were lots of volunteers who help with refreshments and stalls on the day.
They raise money for the church each year.
Last year they raised £5,000 and believe they will have matched that this year.
