News & Events
2024 AGM Meeting
Will be held on Wednesday April 10th
7 pm in the main hall at Brancaster Village Hall
Hartop Cup – Results
First prize with 200 points is Kim Ainsworths plot 11.
A worthy winner of the Hartop trophy.
Second place goes to Jeni Boyd, plot 2. (191 points)
Third place goes to Peter and Steph Kane for plots 7/8. (169 points)
The special prize (inspires, appeals and refreshes) goes to plot 5b – Arline Townsend. The judges commented “The atmosphere that the garden gave out informed us that it was obviously much loved and constantly well tended.” “A wonderful cottage garden feel to the plot” “An outstanding plot “
Congratulations to everyone, especially the winners.🏆
My thanks on your behalf go to the judges for volunteering their time so freely, John Gregory for guiding the judges round the plots, and Jeni Boyd for organising the judging and providing the clipboards.
Hartop Cup
The annual judging of the plots will take place on Tuesday July 18th at 6.00pm. Everyone has worked so hard on their plots this year and the whole site looks as well as it has ever done
2023 AGM Meeting
Will be held on Thursday April 13th
7 pm in the main hall at Brancaster Village Hall
Please note that the Allotment AGM due to be held on March 19th has been postponed.
Your committee has reluctantly taken this decision to safeguard the health of our members and our wider community.
10th Anniversary
2019 AGM Meeting
This year’s AGM, will be held on Thursday March 19th
7.00pm in the main hall at Brancaster Village Hall
Allotment members say farewell to Richard and Pauline Seppings
On Tuesday 22nd October members presented Richard and Pauline with flowers, farewell card and a garden voucher to show their appreciation to our Chairman and Pauline for their hard work on behalf of the Society.
Best Allotment Plot – winner of the Hartop Trophy 2019
Congratulations to Jeni Boyd!
1st Plot 2 Jeni Boyd with 197 points
2nd plot 8 Peter and Stephanie Kane with 173 points
3rd plot 21/2 Ken and Heather Tidd with 171 points
Judging was on Thursday 4th July 2019
Judges were Jane and Jeremy Thompson, John and Jo Morris and Gary Bocking.
The judges commented that it was great to see the upper plots coming into use. The dry period had taken its toll on certain plots. Next year we are replacing the judging category of livestock with one of herbs.
Sorting Plot 25
Easter Sunday Ducklings
FREE SEEDS
Please make sure you get some of the free seeds that Waterside Nursery have donated to John Gregory for our use.
Call in at the Brancaster Post Office before 12am Monday to Friday, to see John, he has about 600 packets! Be aware that the Post Office closes for the rebuilding of the Village Hall in Brancaster on Friday 15th February.
John will be bringing the remaining seeds to the AGM.
2019 AGM Meeting
Please note the date and new venue for our AGM. Tuesday 19th March 2019, 7:00pm at Brancaster Staithe Village Hall.
Best Allotment Plot – winner of the Hartop Trophy 2018
Congratulations to Jeni Boyd!
1st Plot 2 Jeni Boyd with 152 points
2nd plot 21 Ken and Heather Tidd with 150 points
3rd plot 8 Peter and Stephanie Kane with 147 points
Judging was on Monday 9th July 2018
Judges were Jane and Jeremy Thompson, Cyril Sutherland and Shirley Willsher.
The judges commented that the plots were still a much improving sight, with the higher plots looking as if they will be much better next year. The composting did leave room for improvement, but water management had obviously been well done.
2017 Brancaster Day & The Hartop Cup
The Hartop Trophy was presented by Mr & Mrs Thompson to Ken and Heather Tidd on Brancaster Day,
The committee would also like to acknowledge Norman & Beryls hard work on Brancaster Day organising the bottle stall, they raised over a £100 for our funds.
Well done to all involved
The Hartop Cup – 2017 – Judging for Best Allotment
The winner of the 2017 Hartop Trophy competition for the best Allotment Plot is Heather and Ken Tidd’s Plot 21.
Congratulations to Ken and Heather for a superb plot.
The points awarded by the judges to the top three plots were as follows:
Winner: Plot 21. With 224 points. Ken and Heather Tidd.
2nd: Plot 8. With 223 points. Peter and Stephanie Kane.
3rd: Plot 3. With 196 points. Alan Townshend.
The judges were:
Jeremy and Jane Thompson, Rev. Susan Bowden-Pickstock, Gary and Sarah Bocking, Jeni Boyd
Judging was on the evening of Monday 3rd July, it was a very pleasant evening. The judges made the comment that the plots keep getting better and better, despite the challenging seasons.
Plot 15a (Steve Foster) got a special mention as an impressive productive half plot.
The AGM 2017
The meeting will be held at the Simms Reeves – Brancaster
Thursday 9th March 7 pm
EVERYONE WELCOME
The Hartop Cup – 2016 – Judging for Best Allotment
In First place and winning The Hartop Trophy was Plot no 2. Jeni Boyd with 149 Points.
In Second place was Plot no1. with 138 points (Deanee and Stephen Clark)
In Third place was Plot No 8. with 131 points (Peter and Stephanie Kane)
The judges remarked on how good the plots looked in spite of the difficult season, there were few Pests or Diseases and the absence of Livestock was noted. The whole site was also looking tidy and loved.
Congratulations to Jeni Boyd, a very worthy winner who has now won the competition for two consecutive years, and under the rules of the competition can’t win next year, but will be entitled to join the judging panel.
The AGM 2016
The meeting will be held at the Simms Reeves – Brancaster
Thursday 31st March 7.30pm
EVERYONE WELCOME
The Hartop Cup – The Results for 2015
Following the judging of the Allotment Plots the results are:
1st Place Plot 2 Jeni and Richard Boyd 271 points
2nd Place Plot 1 Deanee and Stephen Clark 260 points
3rd Place Plot 8 Steph and Peter Kane 243 points
Well done to these members, and an especial congratulations to Jeni Boyd for her outstanding plot.
2014 Brancaster Day & The Hartop Cup
Thanks very much indeed to all those people who visited our stall on Brancaster Day and took part in our potato throwing game or bought produce. We raised £121.50 towards the village allotments. The first prize veg box was very kindly donated by Arline Townshend, and the runner up prizes by other allotment holders – as were the veg and flowers on the stand. Thank you to all who donated vegetables.
A big thank you goes to Jeni & Richard and Hazel & Stephen for running the game, manning the stand, selling the stuff etc. etc. (in other words, doing the work on the day). Thanks to Stephen for the loan of the table and for putting up his gazebo.
The Hartop Cup for the best kept allotment was presented at the Day; this year the joint winners were Peter & Steph Kane on plot 8 and Alan Townshend on plot 3. Thanks to the judges who gave up their time to judge the plots, as they do every year and to Mr & Mrs Thompson for running the judging and presenting the cup.
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Brancaster Day 2013
The Allotment Society again made an appearance at Brancaster Day. We had our ‘Bat the Rat’ game (as we did last year) and sold some surplus produce kindly donated by plot 1. The Quaysiders sang and collected for the Society and sold some of their CDs. In total we raised approx. £80 towards the Society funds. Thanks to Deanee and Stephen Clarke, Pauline and Richard Seppings, and Richard Lowe for giving up their time.
Thinking towards next year, it would be good to have a change and do something a bit different. Please could you put your thinking caps on while you are digging your allotment and try to come up with something that you could do on the field to support the Society. As they say at the fencing clubs, new blood is always welcome, and it has been the same people on the allotment stand each year for the last three years. Please come and help us.
The presentation of the Hartop Rose Bowl for the best presented allotment for 2013 took place at Brancaster Day as well, with Mr and Mrs Thompson presenting the winner, Alan Townshend, with his hard won trophy. Well done Alan.
Judging for the Hartop Cup
It was a lovely evening to be Judging the Hartop Bowl and we thank you for your assistance with the layout of the plots.
The result was close and as follows;-
1st with 213 points – plot 3 (three).
2nd with 198 points- plot 1 (one).
3rd with 195 points – plot 10 (ten).
The Judges wished me to mention that; they were impressed by the overall improvement of the plots and especially on how hard those taking up plots must have worked. The Schools plot was much appreciated by the Judges and so too was the increase of plant diversity on the plots.
The contest was close and the Judges were very ready to utilise the well placed bench as they went round and then totalled up the points.
With best wishes for a fruitful year
Jeremy Thompson.
Membership Cards
Membership cards are now available for collection from John Gregory at Brancaster Post Office. We understand that a discount is available at Moulam and Horn for members of an allotment society. There may be similar discounts available elsewhere so if anyone does discover anywhere else providing such a discount could they please let us know so that we can tell other members.
BRANCASTER DAY 11th August 2012
The Allotment Society will be having a stand again this year – If you would like to help out on the day please contact a committee member.
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| Hartop Cup |
The presentation of the trophy for 2012 was held on Saturday 14th July during the annual Society picnic at the allotments. Although other events on that day reduced the attendance slightly (how dare they pick the same day as us?) a good number of people were there and, as they say, a good time was had by all. Several of the judges were able to join us; it was nice to see them and we were able to question them about their judging criteria etc. After the presentation we were treated to a display of aerobatics courtesy of an adjacent wedding reception!
The general consensus was that taken as a whole the plots are in very good shape. I’m sure this will continue; our plot holders put in a considerable amount of work and we are very proud of our allotments.
First Plot; no 7, Seppings, Scored 239 points
Second; Plot no 21, Raisbury, Scored 232 points
Third ; Plot no 20, Townshend, Scored 212 points
Brancaster Day 2011
We decided to have a stand at Brancaster Day this year to raise awareness of the Society and the allotments. As we didn’t want to miss the chance to raise a bit of money towards the drainage work we are hoping to get done soon, we put together a game of ‘find Sammy’s treasure’. Deanee painted a brilliant board for the game (see picture) and, thanks to sterling efforts from Deanee, Stephen, Pauline and Richard, we sold all the squares and raised the grand total of £36. We also had one person join the Society for the seed offer.
It was a lovely day all round, we were graced by the presence on the stand of the winner of the 2nd place rosette in the veteran dog category at the dog show (well done Pebbles) and we had a lot of interest from visitors to the show. There was a general consensus of opinion (at least on our stand J) that we would have won the prize for best presented stand had there been one! Many thanks to Shane who loaned us Sammy the scarecrow (Sammy is the one on the left in the picture – the one on the right is Stephen) who enticed many folk, both young and old, to come to the stand for a closer look.
Thanks to those who took part and also to those who came and supported us and bought tickets
Open Day 2010
On the 31st July we held our first Allotment Holders’ Day. Some of the allotmenteers brought barbeques and we enjoyed an afternoon of fun, food and frolics. Alright, I lied about the frolics – but we had a great time with lots of good company and plenty of chat. The Hartop Cup for the best allotment was presented, having been judged one evening the previous week by a panel of esteemed experts. The inaugural winners were Stephen and Deanee Clark – a win that was very well received as it was richly deserved. Their allotment has been an inspiration to us all during the year. The trophy, a gorgeous silver rose bowl, was presented to Deanee by Mrs Thompson. Mr Thompson, having led the judging team, said some very kind words about the allotments. Now that we are getting into the swing of things I think Stephen and Deanee may have a fight on their hands to retain the trophy next year J
The open day was a really good ‘do’ and I hope that those who were unable to attend this year may be able to come next year – we are proud of our allotments; lets have fun and celebrate them.
Thanks to Mr and Mrs Thompson for the Hartop Trophy and to those allotment holders and their guests who attended the open day and brought barbeques etc. They all helped to make it the super afternoon it undoubtedly was.
For more photographs of the day see our Photo Gallery
At our first Open Meeting Mr Jeremy Thompson, on whose land the allotments are located, announced that the hartop Trust would present a silver cup annually for the best presented allotment.
The Hartop family farmed in the Keysoe/Thurleigh area of Bedfordshire over many generations, and participated in and enjoyed all activies of the countryside. Jane Thompson ( nee Hartop ) inherited Bedfordshire land which was sold to enable the purchase of the Brancaster Hall Estate. Jane is an enthusiastic gardener and also very much enjoys her conservatory.
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The contest will cover any allotment in the Brancasters.
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The allotments will be judged during the first two weeks of July –annually, by a party of 7 Judges –to include; A Hartop family member/representative who will chair the judges, which will include a parish councillor, an allotment committee member and four more persons still to be appointed
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The allotments will be judged on 10 criteria with 5 marks for each total 50 marks. Each Judge will give marks for each competitor as they go round the plots together and the entry with the most marks wins !!
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1.General impression; 2. Pest Control; 3. Diseases; 4. Yield/Abundance; 5. Weed Control 6. Diversity/range; 7. Flowers; 8. Vegetables; 9.Tidiness; 10.Environment.
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The Cup will be presented by a member of the Hartop Family/Landlords at an annual gathering/AGM/Dinner – Date to be confirmed
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In the event of the allotments ceasing the cup returns to the donors
The idea behind it’s simple – students are required to compose a paper which will be presented and discussed at a particular meeting or event, which is attended by faculty members of the academic institution in which the pupils are enrolled.