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A piece of paper found tucked away in an old Flower Club file during 2007 explained how the club began back in May 1976. One of the founder members is still in the club today. The following is an exact transcription of the original document, which has been scanned and saved for posterity. Unfortunately, the paper was undated so we cannot be exact about when it was written, but if you can date it, we would love to hear from you. Read on ...
BROADSTONE & CORFE MULLEN FLORAL DECORATION SOCIETY For a long time word had been going around that a Floral Society
was badly needed in the Broadstone area. On numerous occasions I had been
asked to get something started but I decided to wait until I had finished my
term of office as Area Chairman and the National Show “Salute to the South”
had been completed, when I was Chairman of the exhibition side. Then I
went to work. I had been asked to give a demonstration in St. John’s Church
Hall on the evening of Tuesday 4th May 1976, and so many people were
interested that I formed the Broadstone and Corfe Mullen Floral Decoration
Society. Our inaugural meeting was held the following week on Tuesday,
11th May at 7.30pm in the hall of the United Reform Church, where
we still meet.
Eve Taylor was our first demonstrator and she gave us an inspired
demonstration to a packed hall; it was a marvellous meeting and we were on
our way. To help us get started the late Pansie Phillips of Lytchett Minster
and Upton agreed to be our Hon. Secretary and Marion Richmond, who had
helped considerably with the demonstration at St. John’s was our first
Treasurer. We had a good committee but so many things were needed and
most of all a stage, for in the early days we borrowed from Lytchett Matravers
and Springdale Road Schools. We had to get hold of a large car, van or
lorry to fetch and carry to and from each meeting which was not easy to find
among the members. So as soon as possible we had our own stage made, but
this still had to be set up and then dismantled after each meeting. When the
stage difficulty had been resolved we had to buy drapes and niches. Finance
was, of course, always a problem so we organized jumble sales, coffee
evenings, anything in fact, to bring in the money to provide the materials
needed and to make the occasional donation to charity.
Meanwhile the lower arranging was going on apace. We had some
marvellous demonstrators and the Club would like to thank those kind friends
who gave us our demonstration for the first eighteen months, accepting only
the cost of their flowers and travelling expenses.
We hold monthly competitions and in our first year we entered teams in
both the A and B classes in the Area Show at Milton Abbey. The A team won
a 3rd prize and the B team received a 2nd, which made us all extremely happy
and proud, having been in existence a mere thirteen months. We have
entered every Area Show since.
In 1980, I was honoured to be asked to do the Area entry for the National
show at Nottingham University, “Midland Montage”. I asked Deborah Mantell
to come with me and she did all the driving, fetching and carrying, and was
a marvellous helper. We both enjoyed the experience and it was wonderful to
meet so many old friends again. Also in 1980 Deborah and her helpers from
the Club manned the Plant Stall at the Area Show at Wimborne and made the
sum of over £220, a most satisfactory result for all their hard work, and in
addition both our A and B teams won a 2nd prize that year.
Each year we have a dinner that is well attended and is a delightful
social evening. We hold it as near to our original date in May as possible
and we always have a guest speaker. We were most fortunate in having
Margaret Keith during her term of office as National Chairman – she is, of
course, an Honorary life member of the Club – and last year Doris Hunt, the
Area President, entertained us with a most amusing talk on demonstrating in
the fifties. For our first dinner in May 1977, however, we persuaded
Mary Pope to come along and talk to us on the very early days of flower
arranging in Dorset, where the movement first started, and she told us about
her time spent in Canada during the war.
We have a Summer Show, which is competitive, when there are five
trophies to be won, for the A, B and Novice classes, the Best in Show and the
Overall Points winner. We also hold a Christmas Exhibition and Sale which is
our main fund raising event of the year, when we hope to raise sufficient to
keep us financially sound. From last year’s proceeds we were able to give
£150 to the Dorset Spastic Society’s Day Care Unit at Langside Road
School, Poole.
The Club committees have helped so willingly on these occasions and
of course, we rely on the members to support us. I think we run the best cake
stall for miles around, judging from the compliments received. It’s lucky we
have good cooks as well as good flower arrangers.
During 1981, for the first time the Club became involved in the decoration
of churches and halls. In June several of our members helped to decorate
St. Stephen’s Church in Bournemouth for their Festival of Vestments and
Flowers. We were asked to decorate the Salvation Army Citadel in Poole in
July in honour of the Royal Wedding celebrations and in September the Club
was responsible for the Flower Festival at the United Reformed Church,
Broadstone, in aid of the Arthritis and Rheumatism Council. Unfortunately,
that particular weekend the wind howled and the rain came down in torrents
so the beautiful arrangements were not seen by as many members of the
public as might have been the case had the skies been brighter.
In conclusion, it seems amazing how much we have accomplished in
so short a space of time, from the 11th May 1976 to the present day. I trust we
may continue from strength to strength, always enjoying our flower arranging
and, most important, remembering always to do our flowers for pleasure.
Evelyn Carnegie-Brown
Founder President
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