Eccleshall Guide

25 Wheelwright Drive, Eccleshall, Staffs, ST21 LB
01785 851381 07815 419166  email: peterwjones@btinternet.com

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Eccleshall In Bloom etc

The Eccleshall Society has a number of sides to it, not the least is the Eccleshall In Bloom side.

Each year ‘Pandemics permitting’ the organisation  installed over 60 hanging baskets and over 40 mangers in the town centre in time for the summer.

Sunday 6th June was the date set by the Ecclian Society for the installation of the town centre’s sixty-four hanging baskets and forty-eight mangers. 

Over the years the weather has been good to the 30 or so Ecclians volunteers, who have erected the hanging baskets and mangers, but this year following a week of wonderfully sunny weather rain fell on the town and the volunteers. Undaunted by the weather the volunteers gathered and erected the baskets and mangers and tidied up after themselves.

The volunteers are divided into different groups to carry out the task. The baskets are delivered beforehand to the town and arranged around the route ready for erecting. One group would move the baskets to the foot of each hanging bracket on the town centre buildings, anther group brought ladders and included an installer, someone to secure the ladder and a third party to pass the basket to the installer. Chains are fitted around each basket which is then secured to the brackets on the building. Another group uses a simple scaffold to erect the mangers on the oak posts around the town centre. A further group follows on tidying the pavement and removing any left-over material. 

The teams are practiced at what they do and the whole task can often be completed in two hours when a hot drink is provided by a fourth group.

The overall effect of their work creates a wonderfully sunny outlook to the town centre for many months. The brackets that they use will have been tested to ensure that the baskets are secure and in no way endanger the passing public. 

The Ecclian Society raises the funds each year to pay for the baskets and mangers, many of them are sponsored by local businesses, individuals and organisations, whose support is then acknowledged with a plaque on or near the baskets and mangers.

The baskets were obtained from Johnson Hall Nursery. The project was financially supported by the Eccleshall Parish Council.

The Society is also responsible for the Christmas trees complete with lights in the town centre using the same brackets after the baskets have been taken down.

Funds are raised each year by the Society with fund raising activities such as a very popular calendar showing sights of the parish which in 2021 was created from local photographs and distributed by Philippa Smart (01785 284230) and Al Hodson.

Society membership

Membership of the Ecclian Society is available to anyone with a family fee of £5, the fee not having been raised since the Society started. Contact Richard Egan for further details 01785 851548 email: Richard_john_egan@hotmail.com.

The Chairman of the Society is Brian Freeman (01785 851590) and the Secretary is Christine Heelis who can be reached at 01785 850870.”

OPEN GARDENS

The Open Gardens weekend took place this year in Eccleshall on Saturday June 19 and Sunday June 20
The funds raised from the event help to fund the various activities of the Society dedicated to the preservation and enhancement of Eccleshall a unique country town of historical interest. On Sunday June 20, the Mayor of Stafford Councillor Tony Nixon and the Mayoress Mrs Wendy Nixon visited the gardens.