Westcott’s 1860 Flower Show

On Saturday 22 September 1860, the Westcott Floral and Horticultural Society held its autumn show in the National School-room. It was the society’s fourth year. It was also one of the wettest summers anyone could remember, and on the day it rained from morning to night. The President, A. K. Barclay of Bury Hill, didn’t come, and nor did the Rev. Henry Seymour, one of the patrons. So the society’s secretary, Charles March of Brooklands, got the exhibits staged “at an early hour“, said “a few appropriate observations to the exhibitors“, and handed out every prize himself.

A week later, on Saturday 29 September 1860, the local paper printed a report of the day and the full prize list, with the money each winner took home. We reproduce it below as it was printed, with the original spelling.

It’s the most complete prize list we have from the 1850s and 1860s, and it shows what a village show looked like a century before the club was founded. The classes were for cottagers and working men, the prizes were paid in shillings and sixpences, and at the end the gentlemen amateurs gave their own winnings back to buy tools for the cottagers. You can read the rest of the society’s story on our 1857 history page.

Westcott Floral and Horticultural Society

Local newspaper, Saturday 29 September 1860

On Saturday last, the second show of this society took place in the Westcott National schoolroom. Unfortunately the weather was most unpropitious for an exhibition of this kind, it raining the whole day long. The indefatigable secretary, Mr Charles March, to whose exertions the success of this society is mainly attributable, succeeded in bringing together at an early hour the various articles exhibited, which, taking into consideration the unfavorable state of the weather this season, were of excellent quality, and highly creditable to the producers.

For want of sun and warmth, no grapes were exhibited, there being none grown out of doors yet ripe. There was also a deficiency of articles exhibited among several other things for which prizes were offered, owing probably, to the season. Messrs Underwood (Broomhall), Kemp (Albury Park), and Dore (Juniper Hall), were the judges, who kindly undertook the task of awarding prizes.

In consequence of the absence of A. K. Barclay, Esq, the president of the society, and of the Rev Henry Seymour, one of the society’s patrons, the duty of distributing the prizes devolved upon the hon. sec., Mr March, who after a few appropriate observations to the exhibitors, distributed amongst them the following prizes, as awarded by the judges:

Prize List

Fruit

• Twelve dessert apples: 1 P. Greenfield (2s 6d), 2 Henry Hoad (2s), 3 James Dibble (1s 6d).
• Twelve kitchen apples: 1 P. Greenfield (2s 6d), 2 James Hazzell [sic; very probably James Razzell] (2s), 3 Henry Hoad (1s 6d).
• Twelve pears: 1 P. Greenfield (2s), 2 Thomas Briggs (1s 6d).

Vegetables

• Thirty-six round potatoes: 1 Jesse Garman (2s 6d), 2 G. Walton (2s 6d), 3 H. Hoad (2s), 4 N. Rowland (1s).
• Twelve carrots: 1 C. Wilkins (2s 6d), 2 P. Greenfield (2s), 3 W. Pellings (1s 6d) and James Lee (1s 6d), 4 Jesse Garman (1s).
• Twelve parsnips: 1 W. Pellings (2s 6d), 2 J. Dibble (2s), 3 N. Rowland (1s 6d), 4 M. Briggs (1s).
• Twelve turnips: 1 J. Razzell (2s 6d), 2 J. Dibble (2s).
• Twenty-four onions: 1 J. Rose (3s), 2 J. Razzell (2s 6d), 3 P. Greenfield (2s), 4 W. Pellings (1s).
• Four savoys: 1 M. Briggs (2s 6d), 2 J. Lee (2s).
• Four cabbages: 1 J. Garman (2s), 2 J. Razzell (1s 6d), 3 J. Rose (1s).
• Three red cabbages: 1 N. Rowland (2s), 2 M. Briggs (1s 6d).
• Fifty pods of scarlet runner beans: 1 C. Wilkins (2s 6d), 2 J. Rose (2s), 3 M. Briggs (1s 6d), 4 P. Greenfield (1s).
• Fifty pods of peas: 1 J. Weller (2s).
• Salad, six varieties: 1 M. Briggs (2s), 2 W. Mercer (1s 6d).
• Collection of herbs: 1 N. Rowland (3s), 2 M. Briggs (2s), 3 J. Garman (1s).
• Collection of vegetables, twelve varieties: 1 J. Garman (6s), 2 N. Rowland (5s).
• Collection of vegetables: 1 C. Wilkins (3s), 2 W. Pellings (2s), 3 J. Razzell (1s).

Flowers

• Six window plants: 1 J. Garman (3s), 2 Charles Wilkins (2s), 3 M. Briggs (1s).
• Nosegay (a small flower bouquet): 1 M. Briggs (2s 6d), 2 N. Rowland (2s), 3 C. Wilkins (1s 6d).
• Collection of wild flowers: 1 J. Garman (3s), 2 J. Razzell (2s), 3 J. Lee (1s).
• Six hollyhocks: 1 C. Wilkins (2s), 2 G. Walton (1s 6d).
• Six dahlias: 1 G. Walton (2s), 2 W. Pellings (1s 6d), 3 C. Wilkins (1s).

Gardens

• Neatest and best cultivated garden (cottagers): 1 P. Greenfield (20s), 2 N. Rowland (15s), 3 W. Mercer (10s), 4 J. Lee (5s).
• Neatest and best cultivated garden (mechanics and gentlemen’s labouring gardeners): 1 M. Briggs (15s), 2 W. Dodd (10s).

Tool prizes

Given by Messrs Fell, Joseph Rose and Jesse Rose, “being the amount received by them from the society, for amateur’s prizes“. Best collection of vegetables and fruit, not less than eighteen varieties: 1 a wheelbarrow, to P. Greenfield; 2 a steel digging fork, to N. Rowland; 3 a steel spade, to W. Mercer; 4 a garden rake, to J. Dibble.

Extra prizes (1s each)

Mark Briggs, celery; W. Mercer, celery; J. Garman, nosegay; G. Walton, phloxes; G. Walton, verbenas; M. Briggs, gooseberries; N. Rowland, potatoes; C. Wilkins, potatoes.

“The amount thus awarded amounted to nearly £12, being a little short of the sum usually given, the difference being reserved for future distribution.”

Who won?

The day belonged to Peter Greenfield. He took the best cottage garden and its £1 prize, won both apple classes and the pears, and carried off the wheelbarrow. His prize money came to 32 shillings, about three weeks’ wages for a farm labourer of the time.

Mark Briggs won more prizes than anyone, eleven in all. His wins ranged from savoys and salad to a shilling for his gooseberries. He also took the 15s best-garden prize in the class for “mechanics and gentlemen’s labouring gardeners“. Nathaniel Rowland was close behind with eight cash prizes and the digging fork. Jesse Garman won the biggest prize in the vegetable classes, 6s for twelve kinds of vegetable.

James Razzell senior won six prizes: first for turnips, then seconds and thirds for onions, cabbages, wild flowers and a collection of vegetables. That’s if, as seems very likely, the “James Hazzell” of the kitchen apples was him too. He was the great-grandfather of Lance Corporal W. J. Razzell, the Bury Hill gardener killed in Mesopotamia in 1916 (read his story). In 1862, two years after this show, his son would be competing against him.

William Dodd, the star of the 1850s, had a quiet day, with just the second prize for the labouring gardeners’ best garden.

A few other things stand out:

• The weather. No outdoor grapes had ripened at all, and in the same issue the paper reported the oats, barley and beans still standing, sodden, in the fields. In 1858 the society’s July show had suffered the opposite problem, a drought on Westcott’s sandy soil. Westcott gardeners have been blaming the weather for as long as there have been shows!
• The amateurs’ gift. The three gentlemen amateurs handed back everything the society had paid them, so that it could be turned into a wheelbarrow, a fork, a spade and a rake for the cottagers.
• The money. The cash prizes listed here add up to about £10 10s. The paper’s “nearly £12” may include the cost of the tools. Either way, it was less than usual, and the society saved the rest for another day.
• The secretary. With the President absent, it was Charles March who stood up in the schoolroom and gave out the prizes. More than 160 years later, a descendant of the Marches of Brooklands does the same at Westcott’s shows today.

Source: local newspaper, 29 September 1860. Spelling as printed. The judges’ names are printed here as “Underwood”, “Kemp” and “Dore”; other reports give the Juniper Hall gardener as “Dove”. Prize money is shown in brackets as printed. The tally of winnings is our own.