Our latest open days were in support of Dover Castle’s WW2 Weekend over the bank holiday.
We had just over 700 visitors over the 3 days and took £92 in donations.
Feedback in respect of the Kitchen Garden and our WW2 exhibits were all very positive and many expressed their thoughts in our new ‘visitors book’. We had many ex-servicemen both UK and foreign who were very supportive of our display and our desire to keep the memory of those who fought and worked the land during WW2 alive.
This year the Friends were able to show case not only the work being done in the Kitchen Garden but also our growing collection of WW2 memorabilia, uniforms and equipment, much of which is authentic and has been kindly donated.
Our WW2 uniforms are in keeping with the castle history as they all represent regiments that served at the castle during WW2.
As part of our display and to support our ‘Dig for Victory’ theme we had exhibits representing the Women’s Land Army with uniforms, equipment gardening tools, leaflets and gardening tools.
Plant donations were exceptionally good so thanks to all our WLA volunteers, you all did a fantastic job !
There were many memorable moments over the weekend which is no great surprise, given the varied and interesting discussions we had with people from all walks of life and from around the globe, such is the diverse mix of people that this historic castle attracts.
However, on this occasion the stand out moment was a meeting with Goodnestone Park ‘head gardener’ Paul Bagshaw, who spent a good 30 mins heaping praise upon us in respect of the garden’s layout and the work being done to bring it back into use. He was passionate about the Kitchen Garden project, he offered advice and was fully supportive of our ‘no dig’ policy, something he has been practising for the last 5 years (we are in very good company) ! He even wanted to copy our hazel support structure which we use to grow Squash against.
Overall a very successful weekend and once again a huge thank you to the WLA ladies, our military uniformed volunteers and our stalwart stewards for all your hard work. Well done to you all for making this event a huge success for the Friends.
