Autumn into Winter 2024

Our collaboration with the Museum this year has resulted in lots more young people discovering the garden during the summer holidays. We were able to support their project using money awarded to us by the Young People’s Trust. 

The Museum devised a number of Town Trails for children to follow, including a Nature and Vegetation Trail that led them round the Physic Garden. The leaflet highlighted a number of interesting plants that they could identify and activities that they could carry out. The scheme was a great success, with hundreds of stickers being issued by the Museum to adorn the adventurers’ Heritage Passports. 

Open Mic Session with Dan Toft

Two busy weeks later, Saturday 8^th September saw us welcoming around 100 visitors to the annual Heritage Open Day. The sun failed to put in an appearance; but at least it stayed dry! 

David gave a succession of tours around the building, explaining the history of our Grade II listed Bath House; while Caroline Daniel, a Medical Herbalist, led tours of the garden, providing fascinating information about the medicinal uses of the plants. 

The volunteers had baked a delicious selection of cakes to be enjoyed with tea and coffee on the lawn, and a number of our home grown plants were available in exchange for a donation.

It was a busy but most enjoyable day, and the last big public event of the year. 

By October, Nick finished paving the third side of the Bath House with reclaimed stone slabs. This has been a long and tricky project, and the quality of Nick’s work is superb. It sets off the building beautifully and looks as if it has always been there. Nick is a genius at managing the complicated array of slopes, curves and straight lines, with no sign of plans or drawings. There’s now only the section by the door to the upstairs room to be completed.

Here we see Vanessa working on a section of hedging.  

Back in 2008, the local team of conservation volunteers spent a day working on what was then a very scrappy and neglected length of mixed hedging, bordering the public path leading upwards to the Bath House.

The top section is holly: a very large holly tree was laid, and has now developed into a good, tight length of hedging. The whole length of this hedge is now in very good shape, forming a secure, green boundary. It just has to be kept in shape!

Back in August, the judges for the RHS North West In Bloom It’s Your Neighbourhood competition had visited us. They seemed particularly pleased with the progress on community engagement, and the paving around the Bath House, improving safety for visitors and volunteers. 

When the results were announced in October we were more than happy to receive another Level 5 – Outstanding award.  We gained 93% – it’ll be hard to beat that next year! Several of the team attended the celebratory event at Congleton Town Hall; and Vanessa and Linda represented us at the awards ceremony in Bolton.

A long awaited addition to the Bath House & Physic Garden site: we have at last installed an Information Board at the bottom of the garden, to welcome visitors to the site and tell them all about it. 

This project has taken many years of discussion, debate, planning and design, and could not have been achieved at all without considerable ‘outside help’. Thanks are due to Laura for her wonderful artwork; and to the William Dean Trust and Congleton Town Council for their generous sponsorship.

And we are very grateful to team member Howard, here with the board, for the design and build of the supporting structure. 

We held our AGM on 2nd December, in the Bath House, with team members contributing home-made dishes to a pre-Christmas buffet lunch afterwards.  

Among the items at an AGM is the Treasurer’s Report. Though not everyone’s favourite topic, keeping the organisation financially stable is a necessary part of our work, alongside our core activities of the preservation, maintenance and development of the site. As well as the undoubted boost to our coffers arising from the provision of refreshments at our public events, we have increased donations this year by offering private tours, or giving talks, to various groups and organisations. These varied fund-raising activities, entirely planned, managed and supported by the team, have generated sufficient income this year to cover our running costs.

So perhaps the best picture with which to sum up this year is this one of the Bath House in November 2024. It’s looking splendid, and represents the skills, hard work and time freely given by our wonderful team of volunteers.