Barnoldswick in Bloom

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David Whipp
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Barnoldswick in Bloom

Post by David Whipp »

Barnoldswick in Bloom is a group that's dedicated to increasing civic pride in our town and creating pleasanter and more colourful streets and public places.

Set up in 2011, the group organises activities throughout the year to provide hands on opportunities for people to improve Barnoldswick.

Since 2011, Barnoldswick in Bloom has entered Barlick in the regional Britain in Bloom initiative, winning three gold medals and trophies for the Best Newcomer (2011) and Best Feature in a Public Place (2013).

The climax of activities is in July, when judges from North West in Bloom visit the town to see how well we're doing.

In 2014, the judging is on 8th July and Bloom activists are busy preparing the town for the day.

Anyone wanting to get involved with Barnoldswick's Bloom activities can contact the secretary at barnoldswickinbloom@gmail.com

More information can be found on the bloom group's webpage HERE
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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In the run up to judging day, the bloom group are organising Community Action Events to plant and look after the flower beds and tidy up the town.

Here's bloom activist Claire Teall with our oldest known volunteer, 101 year old Alice Wood, planting out summer bedding.

Image

The next group activities are this Thursday evening; 6.30pm from the Town Square and then over the weekend from 9.30am on both Saturday and Sunday.
Last edited by David Whipp on 02 Jul 2014, 06:10, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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I was talking to one of your lady helpers on Sunday as she worked on the bed opposite Ladbroke's. We agreed that getting people on their knees on a Sunday was a good thing....
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David Whipp
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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We had 10+ people out for this evening's Community Action event and other people have been busy preparing display material or working individually during the day today. Most of the summer bedding has been planted out; we're struggling to find sensible new places to put the rest of it.

This morning, I had great fun with tiny tots at the Childrens' Centre allotment planting out some of the summer bedding. The group of children and adults included a mum with a ten week old in a sling. So the age range of helpers spans over 101 years!

We're now dealing with small items of 'grot' and pavement detritus including thousands of fag ends all over the place. Tonight I took great pleasure in cutting a redundant sign down off a lighting column (I asked the county council to take it down a while since, but it hasn't happened) and we got to grips with this old hanging basket bracket on Ellis Street (which the county council said they wouldn't take down).

Image

This weekend sees Community Activity taking place on both Saturday and Sunday and we'll be working on Monday and from early doors on Tuesday.

The route we're following is:

• From Rainhall Centre along Rainhall Road to Frank Street;
• Down Frank Street to Town Square/Albert Road;
• Up Ellis Street and through ginnel besides Library to Fernlea Avenue;
• Down Fernlea Avenue to War Memorial;
• Across Wellhouse Road to Town Green;
• Across Fernlea Avenue to Station Road;
• Station Road to Fernlea Ave bus layby;
• Minibus down Fernlea Avenue/Gisburn Road;
• To Valley Gardens;
• Walk along Valley Gardens to pond dipping area, return to Gisburn Road;
• Rejoin mini-bus and travel via Gisburn Road/Gisburn Street/West Close Road to St Joseph’s Primary School.
• Rejoin mini-bus. Via Gisburn Street, Gisburn Road, Skipton Road, Fernlea Avenue, Essex Street, Rook Street to Lower Park Street allotments;
• Rejoin mini-bus. Via Rook Street, Essex Street and Kelbrook Road to new primary school. Turn in sports centre car park;
• Via Kelbrook Road to Memorial Gardens;
• Return to Rainhall Centre via Rook Street and Mosley Street.

If anyone wants to take individual action, these are the sort of things we're sorting out:

Identify areas for remaining summer bedding and plant out!

Water beds as necessary.

Please check route and visible areas off it for litter, vandalism and grot – deal with as necessary.

Remove cable ties from posts and remove fly-posting.

Please clean any street furniture (bins, grit bins, posts, lamposts etc).

Please sweep fag ends etc from behind benches, street furniture etc. (A mechanical sweeper is coming on Sunday morning to deal with large areas and gutters. We’ll need to follow this up with a hand sweep.)

Please litter pick all areas adjacent to the route.

Please remove weeds from beds and in pavements/hardsurface areas.

Please deadhead flowers as needed.

Please check Stocks Beck in Valley Gardens for rubbish and remove.

Please report any bigger issues that need attention.

NB Bus shelters on Station Road and Fernlea due for thorough cleaning on Monday by contractors.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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I'm impressed.... The Green is looking good after the close mow and pick up of grass, the Poppy Beds are thriving!
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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I'm hoping we get the rain today as promised earlier in the week to get the Town Green to peak condition for Tuesday. (A lasting legacy of this year's efforts is that the management of the grass on the Green has been changed. Although it won't be picked up at each cut, a better machine will be used.)

The wildflower areas have come up a bit peculiar, as they appear to be dominated by a type that was a relatively small portion of the mix. The poppy seed hasn't come up very well at all, although there's more red coming through on a daily basis.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Well, the rain has come this afternoon as promised...

Here's our youngest known helper, 10 week old Isla with her mum and big sister planting out summer bedding.

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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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I've also been impressed with the less obvious tidying up. repainting street furniture, varnishing benches, repair of guard rails on corners etc.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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An annoying thing for me is that when I get into Bloom judging mode, every little last fault leaps out at me as I walk down the town; whether it's fag ends or something that's broken. I'm generally pretty attentive to my surroundings, but my 'grot alert' goes on to a different level. It's annoying because this alert is on all the time for several weeks wherever I go. Mostly, our minds ignore low level stuff (well mine manages to blank it quite well) and we can concentrate on the lovely things; not for me at this time of year.

I sense things are going well when stuff I've reported, but didn't necessarily expect to get done for the judging, is sorted out in a timely manner.

The bloom judging is all about attention to detail; the judge looking at the environment is looking for faults and will knock points off if he finds streets with a few fag ends on it. Working towards judging day hopefully gets the town to a peak as close to perfection as we can collectively manage. We won't be able to keep it like that all year (it would send us nuts), but the year round standard goes up each time, so there's a long term benefit.

Image

Here's something dropping into place; buckled guard rail renewed before judging.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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The attention to detail shows.....
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Between Claire Teall and me, it took over 8 hours today to sweep up the fag ends and other debris on the Town Square and Albert Road. We got some strange looks, but we found the easiest way to clean the setts was with a vacuum...

Another team concentrated on a different part of the judging route, whilst a third detachment dealt with pruning shrubbery on Fernlea Avenue and Station Road and a fourth party continued with preparing the display boards for the judges.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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David Whipp wrote: but we found the easiest way to clean the setts was with a vacuum...
Could I suggest that next time you use a garden leaf blower. You won't finish up with a neat pile but at least they will all be in one corner.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Thanks P. Will give that a whirl in future.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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That pic of you and Claire would make a good election picture....
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Here’s the state of play regarding Bloom readiness for judging day:

• Virtually all summer bedding is in the ground
• The first part of the judging route (top of Fernlea, Rainhall Road, top half of Frank Street and all to Town Square), has all been bottomed
• Mechanical sweeper has swept car parks and town centre roads
• Schools project has been written up
• Huge acreage of display boards has been pasted up
• Memorial Gardens project has been written up and plan produced
• Pruning of beds near toilets and bus shelter complete
• Valley Gardens straightened up
• Half of portfolio laid out
• Sandwich lunch ordered

Jobs outstanding:

• Portfolio to complete
• Bottoming of judging route to complete (NB weeds in some hanging baskets)
• Litterpicking of areas near to route
• Letter to produce and deliver to shop premises on route
• Barnoldswick in Bloom Awards posters to prepare and display
• Pop-up Planters to collect from schools
• Pop-up Planter display boards to make
• Signs for herb beds
• Sign for Gledstone Gardens donation of hanging basket flowers to make and display
• Display boards to hang at Rainhall Centre
• Material for sandwich lunch to acquire
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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That must win the 'site photo of the year' award. It gets my vote anyway. :smile:
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

Post by chinatyke »

Tripps wrote:That must win the 'site photo of the year' award. It gets my vote anyway. :smile:
Strange folk in Barlick. I think they were vacc'ing the road in case the Tour de France cyclists got diverted.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Light shower during the night just to freshen things up.... Good luck for the day!
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Glad you liked the pic!

The judges appreciated the hard work. The one scoring us on litter commented at the end that he hadn't seen a single scrap of litter on the whole tour (apart from a full cigarette that someone had dropped near the bus station - which I'd picked up as we passed). So that should be full marks for cleanliness...

Image

We had the official photo opportunity near the War Memorial, with Pop-up Wartime Allotments created by local primary schools. The kids were great and picked some of the produce for the lunch given to the judges after the tour.

Immediate feedback from the judges was very positive, with all three of them saying how impressed they were with our town. It'll be October before the results of the regional initiative are announced, so there's a long wait to see if we've retained our Gold Medal status.

Meanwhile, the bloom group are organising the town's own Awards event, with nomination forms for the Barnoldswick in Bloom Awards available for people to submit entries.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Here's this year's Barnoldswick in Bloom portfolio.
2014 bloom portfolio A4.pdf
I'm grateful to Lesley Gilbert, Ilse Eden, Claire Teall, Barry Mathews and Keith Whipp for some of the photos used, the rest of the pictures are my own.

I'm entirely responsible for any errors or omissions in the portfolio; please let me know if you see any!
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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If you don't get Gold there ain't no justice!!
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Nominations are now open for the Barnoldswick in Bloom Awards. Nominations or entries can be submitted at the Rainhall Centre, or emailed to barnoldswickinbloom@gmail.com

The Awards celebrate individuals, organisations and businesses that have contributed to making Barnoldswick more colourful and attractive with floral or other horticultural displays.

People can submit their own gardens for the event, or you can nominate someone else's garden or business etc.

Community spaces and neighbourhoods which contribute to the town's attractiveness are also eligible to be nominated.

A nomination form can be downloaded from the Bloom Awards page on Visit Barnoldswick: LINK

The Awards event will he held on September 3rd in the marquee on the Town Square.

Here are some of the people who received awards in 2013.

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David Whipp
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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The new wildflower areas on the Town Green are getting going with a greater variety of flowers showing their colours now.
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Re: Barnoldswick in Bloom

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Barnoldswick in Bloom is holding a Community Action Weekend this coming Saturday and Sunday, 21st and 22nd March to celebrate the beginning of Spring!

Please come along and join the team; organised activities begin at 10am on the Town Square on both Saturday and Sunday.

Further info on the Visit Barnoldswick website: HERE.
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