Westonbirt School reunited with original Flower Show cup

Westonbirt recently sent a press release for our upcoming Flower Show to the Wilts and Glos Standard, which featured the event in both its online and print formats.

The School was subsequently delighted to be visited by Carole Hatherell, mother of two former pupils, Karen and Joanne, who attended Westonbirt in the 1980s. Carole, who has lived in Kingscote since 1966, had seen the piece in the paper early on Thursday 7th September and contacted the School immediately.

To our complete surprise, Carole had, in her possession, the original silver Westonbirt Flower Show cup which she had been awarded in 1982 and wanted to return. The cup was awarded to the entrant who had achieved the most points across a number of competition entries. Carole had entered half a dozen categories, including sewing and jam making, having received a good grounding in the latter through attending Young Farmers.

The event had not been held at Westonbirt since then, until last year, when the School took over its organization. The event had been the Tetbury Flower Show and closed down after lockdown when the organising committee could not gather a group to run it following the pandemic. As with many local events, voluntary groups are hard to source and so the Business Studies team at Westonbirt stepped up to ensure the event could continue.

Carole’s association with Westonbirt School runs deep; she used to swim at the pool and played golf here. She was also present when the then Prince and Princess of Wales, Charles and Diana, visited the School in 1985 to open its Orangery and she exchanged a joke with Diana, whom she describes as “very human.”

As well as returning the cup, which had been gathering dust in a cupboard, Carole also kindly donated her late husband’s silver trombone to the School’s music department.

The School hopes to award the cup at this year’s event on Sunday 17th September.