Shed HQ is blooming marvellous for town

A small group of volunteers who make their town an even more beautiful place to live have opened a new headquarters. Stamford in Bloom members are responsible for many of the planters, pots and hanging baskets in the town centre, as well as chairs decorated with flowers and foliage placed outside shops and public buildings. On Tuesday afternoon they held a reception to mark the official opening of their allotment shed, dubbed Bloom HQ, which will house the decorative chairs through the winter, and items they need to keep their displays looking shipshape throughout summer.

Duncan Lingard invited Stamford in Bloom co-founder Ann Ellis to unveil an engraved plaque on the shed, and thanked her and her late husband Keith for starting the in Bloom group back in 2017. He said: “Ann and Keith were coming into Stamford Railway Station and were greeted by a scene that wasn’t a good one, with litter and overgrown shrubbery. “They decided enough was enough and started to tackle the the litter and cutting back the overgrowth before getting the area planted up.



Slowly but surely they got a team together to help. “We lost Keith in June last year but I hope he would be proud of the legacy he left us.” Opening a pair of curtains made from tea towels to suit the homely style of the shed, which is located at the Uffington Road allotments, Ann expressed her delight and praised the volunteers and their partners who gathered to celebrate the opening with a glass of wine and homemade canapés.

The shed had been donated from a local garden and relocated for free by Neil McIvor and Nina van Dyck, who run the community interest company Team Stamford, which tidies the town, keeping verges neat and planting them with spring bulbs, such as the tulips which are now coming into flower. Neil and Nina even installed a work of art as a replacement roof for the second-hand shed. It had been created on wood for an Pop Up Art event in Stamford, and can now be enjoyed under the shed’s canopy-covered workspace.

They are now looking for a donation of a Blackstone’s plough for a permanent in Bloom installation in North Street, Stamford. Stamford in Bloom is keen for more volunteers to join. Each can look after pots and plantings within a specific patch of Stamford.

For information contact Duncan by emailing [email protected] or calling him on 07860 394187..