De Beauvoir Gardeners – a history and archive

A story of gardening friendship in de Beauvoir

The De Beauvoir Gardeners Club was started in 1978 by landcape gardener Jude Moreas along with Dorrity Kettlewell and Jennifer Stephens. The WI had refused to allow them to set up a branch (in those days the Women’s Institute was only for rural branches) so they started their own gardening club instead. From what we understand monthly meetings with a wide variety of speakers have always been held in the crypt of St. Peter de Beauvoir.

For many years the club was run by a chair and a secretary, only fairly recently being run by a committee. We only have a record of some of the many names that have been associated with the running the club over the past 45 years so here is a huge thanks to those we know of and those we don’t.

Club organisers from the archives: Karen E Creig, Joan Ward, Trisha Lawton, Gilly Breen, Des Barratt, Kathy Lynam, Lynn Brooks, Sue Lynn, Izi Glover, Celia Barlow, Nancy Turnbull, Nancy Korman, Dee Carter, Stephen King, Liz Hatt, Maria Pinschof.

Coach trips

Visiting gardens across the UK has been a regular activity for the club since the eighties. We’ve managed to piece together an archive from photo albums with dates below. As well as UK trips there was a period in the late eighties when one of the members, Jane Chisolm, was able to organise several overseas trips. She worked for Abercrombie and Fitch and organised club trips to Dieppe, Fontainebleau, the Netherlands and Lake Maggiore in Italy.

1987: Saville Garden in Great Windsor Park.
1987: Dieppe, Normandy, visiting gardens Les Bois de Moutiers and Le Vasterival.
1987: Chequers, J Robinson’s garden and Glazenwood.
1988: Nymans and High Beeches in Suffolk.
1988: Amsterdam and Het Loo Palace.
1989: Fontainbleau (see programme below).
1898: Rotherfield Park.
1990: Gardens of Zeeland, Netherlands.

Itinerary for 1990 trip to the gardens of Zeeland, Netherlands
Itinerary for Fontainebleau trip 1989
Group shot on visit to Fontainebleau 1989
Supper on trip to Fontainbleau 1989
Garden visit on the Fontainebleau trip 1989
Trip to Sissinghurst 1991
De Beauvoir Gardeners Dieppe trip 1987, outside the hotel
Garden visit, Dieppe 1987
The group for the Dieppe trip, 1987
Lake Maggiore trip 1994
Lake Maggiore, 1987

1991: Sissinghurst.
1993: Cholmondely and Powys Castles, and Ness Botanic Gardens in Liverpool.
1993: Sheffield Park and Wakehurst Place.
1994: Lake Maggiore, Italy.
1999 Merriments Garden and Great Dixter.
2000: Denmans and The White House.
2005: The Hannah Pescher Sculpture Garden and Architectural Plants.
2006: Audley End House, R&R Saggers Nursery and Langthorns Plantery.
2010: Frederick Gibberd Garden, Bromley Hall and Hopley’s Nursery.
2011: Beth Chatto Garden.
2011: Sheffield Park and Wakehurst Place.
2012: Waterperry Gardens and Upper Chalford Farm – full postand pics here.
2013: Tour of the Alpine house at Kew Gardens organised by Miranda Janatka.

2014: Spencer’s Garden, Snares Hill Cottage and Langthorn’s Plantery. Gallery of pics here.
2015: Borde Hill and 4 Ben‘s Acre Garden.
2017: Englefield House, hosted by Jennifer Benyon, Field Farm Cottage and Pudding Lane Nursery.
2022: RHS Hyde Hall flower show.
2023: Beth Chatto garden and Feeringbury Manor.

Flower and Produce Show

The De Beauvoir Gardeners annual Flower and Produce Show is a much loved community event that has been taking place every September since 1979. At the heart of the show is the competition which includes lots of categories for adults and children to enter. Categories include home grown fruit and vegetables, flowers, flower arranging, baking, preserves, chutneys and arts and crafts. The show was held in St Peter’s vicarage garden between 1979 and 1992 and we have some wonderful pictures and old programmes to prove it. You will see that the show involved hiring a series of marquees to protect entries from the english weather. Looking at press coverage and the programmes we can see that there was often a band playing and there was a small entry charge but in many ways the essence of the Flower and Produce show has remained the same over the years.

Eventually the show became to big for the vicarage garden and in 1993 it was held in the school playground of Our Lady & St Joseph in Culford Road.

After this the stalls moved into the street outside of St Peters church with permission from the Hackney Events team and the competition and teas took place inside the Crypt. In 2005 a Dog Show was introduced to proceedings and added another fun element to the Flower and produce show.

The annual show – results archive

Click on a poster below for the records of every show since we started our website in 2012.
In addition there is a record of all the cup winners since 1979 here.