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About us

The Pyrford and Wisley Flower Show is a traditional village show held on the second Saturday of July every year at the Pyrford Cricket Ground, Coldharbour Road, Pyrford, Woking, Surrey GU22 8ST.

As well as welcoming entries and the display of the Horticultural, Junior, Domestic and Handicraft exhibits, it provides entertainment for all the family through its parade that runs through the village, arena events, rides, stalls, live music and much more.

Any surplus funds are given to local organisations and charities to support the local community.

 

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Policies & Notices

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Temporary Event Notice

Road Closure (Traffic Order)

Privacy Policy

Public Liability Certification

Meet the Committee

The Pyrford and Wisley Flower Show committee is made up from local volunteers who share a passion in keeping the traditional Flower Show running.

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COMMITTEE MEMBERS

 

PRESIDENT                                           Andy Grimshaw

CHAIR                                                     Steve Tipping

VICE CHAIR                                          Alison Dorsett
TREASURER                                         Simon Lee

ADMINISTRATOR                               Suzanne Heaney & Sue Pearce
RECORDING SECRETARY                Suzanne Heaney

DOMESTIC                                            Elizabeth Fidler & Linda Stead
HORTICULTURE                                 Rob Moore
JUNIORS                                               
Suzanne Lees-Smith, Pam Cooper 
                                                                          Danielle Russell

VOLUNTEER COORDINATOR         Devon Coutts

SHOWGROUND MANAGERS           Jo Clayton & Justin Hewitt-Coleman
SPECIAL AWARDS                               Jo Johnson, Nikki Orford & Jane                                                                     Groves
SPONSORSHIP/ADVERTISING       Alison Dorsett
STALLS                                                    Vicky & Niamph Palmer-Watson

PROGRAMME                                       Tara Petters

PROGRAMME DISTRIBUTION        Lynne Broadhead

WEBSITE / SOCIAL MEDIA              Tracey Lee

ARENA                                                    Steve Tipping

BAR                                                          Noel Richardson

DOG SHOW                                           Cath Richardson & Tara Petters
RAFFLE                                                   Robert Munford & Mandy Keane

CRICKET CLUB LIAISON                   Simon Clifton

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SUB-COMMITTEES


HORTICULTURAL                                 Martin Christie, Marie Eliot,                                                                               Linda O'Regan & Chris Philpott

                                                                 
                                                         
DOMESTIC/HANDICRAFT                  Joyce Beckett, Clare Cooper,                                                                             Sally McVeigh, Linda Atkin,
                                                                     Michelle Bai & Deborah                                                                                       Plowman

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JUNIORS                                                  Dannii Russell & Penny Briggs

History

The Pyrford and Wisley Village Show celebrates its 78th year in 2025. The show will be held on 12th July 2025, and the theme will be announced at the AGM on 14th November 2024.

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We would like to thank Mr Tony Paice for allowing us to publish this summary of the origins of the Show.'. We would like to thank Mr Tony Paice for allowing us to publish this summary of the origins of the Show.

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It is tempting to assume that the Flower Show springs from the community’s proximity to the Royal Agricultural Garden which was established at Wisley at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. That, however, would ignore the fact that the original Pyrford and Wisley villages were mostly comprised of cottages inhabited by people who were able to enrich their diets from the produce they grew on fertile alluvial soil along the Wey. Rivalry over who could achieve the largest marrow probably goes back hundreds of years; and, by the end of the 19th century several market gardeners in the area took their surpluses up to Covent Garden, one or two of them drinking the proceeds on the return journey.

 

The RHS certainly gave local enthusiasts a fillip, so it is not by chance that the inaugural meeting of a Pyrford Horticultural Society should have taken place on 18th May 1909. It held annual shows but just before the First World War the enterprise foundered for lack of funds, despite the strong backing it received from Wisley garden’s professionals. Younger members of the community also received horticultural training during evening classes at the old Board School. Halfway through the First World War a quarter of an acre was set aside to provide a model allotment to promote food production.

 

No formal interest in community gardening existed between the wars but, with the return of “the lads” after 1945, there was a hunger for greater social togetherness and enjoyment. There were ambitious plans to turn the Pyrford War Memorial Hall (opened in 1922) into a modern community centre but post-war austerity and the death in November 1948 of the parish guide over 35 years - the Reverend Cuthbert Hamilton - put paid to the project.

 

It was Hamilton, however, who chaired the Hall Committee meeting in 1947 which appointed a sub-committee with a commission to organise a flower show.  This, in turn, would generate funds for the maintenance and refurbishment of the Hall. Accordingly, on 18th August 1948, the first Wisley with Pyrford Flower Show was held and the annual event has continued to this day. True to its original charter it has continued to raise money for the Hall and for deserving local social organisations.

 

Sadly, Hamilton did not see the first show; he was in hospital undergoing an operation for bowel cancer.  His legacy - as with so many other things he caused to be created in our community - remains to this day.

 

ANTHONY PAICE

© 30 November 2008, updated 2022

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