Gala Evening, Friday 19th June 2009    

Our Gala Evening will be a private event, by invitation only, and kindly sponsored by Kleinwort Benson. There will be lots of wine and food in these beautiful gardens - further details of times and of entertainment will be added to this site shortly.
 

Public days, Saturday 20th  & Sunday 21st June 2009

The Show will be open from 10 am - 6 pm

Standard Entry Fee - £7. Children under 12 Free. 
Newbury and District Agricultural Society Members with Membership Card £5. 
Groups of 25 or more may obtain advance Group Entry Tickets. (See Group Page).

The gardens will be fully open, including the Walled Garden, the Rose Garden and the Arboretum. A map will be available in the Show Guide on sale in the Gardens. 

New features for 2009 will include:

• The Berks Bucks and Oxon area of NAFAS (National Association of Flower Arranging Societies) three yearly competitive show, with two marquees.

• The Newbury and District Agricultural Society's 100th Birthday Balloon Rally - one hundred vintage hot air balloons on display in a field just next to the Gardens.

On the Sunday morning we will hold an open air service  "Praise in the Garden", conducted by the Rev. Julie Ramsbotham within the old church in the Garden; as before we expect to have music and a children's choir for this lovely event, and his Grace the Bishop of Reading has confirmed that he will be present.

Our continuing features will include:

• The Schools Competition, this time on the theme 'Butterfly Barrel', and sponsored by Hillview Farm

• The Art Tent, sponsored by ROC Communications

• Antiques Identification and Valuation by Messrs Dreweatts - please bring your own items, and for a small fee Clive Stewart-Lockhart one of Dreweatt's experts will be pleased to do his best to tell you what it is and provide you with an estimate of value. You may well have seen Clive performing this service on the Antiques Roadshow

• Kids Corner - something for the children too

• Our Silent Auction, kindly organised by Newbury Rotary

• Live music - East Woodhay Silver Band will play on the Saturday and Hungerford Brass Band both days.

• Around a hundred Trade Stands

• Gardening advice - in the Walled Garden our experts Pete Jackson (Head Gardener) and his team, Veronica Mackinnon of Schooldays in the Garden, and the Berkshire Gardens Trust will be available to answer your questions, not only about plants around the Gardens at West Woodhay but also (as far as knowledge permits) about subjects or issues that you may have in your own gardens.

Where a subject above is underlined please click on the underlined  words and the link will take you to the appropriate page of this website.

With great regret, for 2009 we cannot accept dogs, with the exception of Guide Dogs of course.

Catering: there will be lots of food and drink available, this time from Country Catering, and the villages will again staff what proved in 2007 to be a very popular Tea Garden, providing coffee, tea and home-made cakes. For 2009 the tea has been very kindly given by Taylors of Harrogate, suppliers of Yorkshire Tea, and the villages' plant stall will be extended to offer homemade produce as well.

Getting here - there is a directions page on this website, and there will be signs, kindly funded by Messrs Knight Frank.

For those that wish to bring their own refreshments there will be plenty of picnic space in the main car park, but we do ask visitors not to bring drinks or snacks into the Gardens and to take any rubbish away on departure; though Messrs Grundon have very kindly agreed to deal with our refuse disposal, our refuse facilities are nevertheless limited.