Winter 2022Rochdale sweeps up at In Bloom awards

Rochdale in Bloom scooped gold in the finals of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom competition and was chosen as the best entry in the Small City category, representing the North West.

Finalists were judged according to strengthened environmental criteria that encourages groups to consider sustainability issues and implement planet-friendly gardening techniques within their community projects.

Nominated for the Small City category, and up against titans Bath, Canterbury and Burton, Rochdale in Bloom represented the North West nationally, after winning its fifth consecutive gold in the 2021 regional competition.

It’s the second time Rochdale has represented the region at the nationals, taking home gold in 2018. The Rochdale team steamed ahead to take the gold and also best in category in this year’s competition with the three other competitors in the category taking home silver gilts, the next best on the score chart.

This year’s floral designs across the town were influenced by the war in Ukraine, planting sunflowers along the route, and the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee.

For both regional and national comps, the team choose a selection of sites for the judges to visit that showcase the best of Rochdale, but at the same time meet all aspects of the judging criteria.

However, the national competition is widely acknowledged as being much stricter and expectations and standards are much higher.

Regionals

The regional North West in Bloom competition consists of two judging days. The first is a guided tour taking in areas of interest; the second allows for visits to community-based projects – ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ – that include local schools, allotments, health and well-being projects and conservation areas.

A record number of outstanding entries across the local In Bloom groups – Rochdale, Norden, Middleton, Heywood and Pennines – secured the council, local businesses and the many community gardeners a very impressive 20 gold awards across the borough.

Rochdale In Bloom

83 awards including eight golds and 48 It’s Your Neighbourhood entries.

Rochdale was once again chosen as the pick of the bunch, taking gold and the overall winner in the ‘small city’ category, plus gold for ‘town centre’ and the trophy for ‘best town’.

Other superb achievements included the best mosque for Jamia Masjid Bilal for the attention to detail and environmental efforts, plus the best hospice in the North West for Springhill Hospice, including an outstanding contribution award for Nick Dent, head gardener at the hospice who retired last year.

Heywood In Bloom

19 awards including five golds and nine It’s Your Neighbourhood entries.

• Best large park (Queen’s Park)
• Outstanding contribution 2022 (Sandra Trickett, who runs the café at Hopwood Park)
• Young bloomer of the year (Ava and Elias Avellanet)

Middleton In Bloom

18 awards including three golds and 13 It’s Your Neighbourhood entries.

• St Michael’s Garden Gang received a judges’ discretionary award for all the work they do with young people
• St John’s Thornham PFTA received a schools’ award

Norden In Bloom

12 awards including four golds and five It’s Your Neighbourhood entries.

• Best new landscape (Birtle Brook Village)
• Best large accommodation (Birtle Brook Village)
• Best commercial (Pavilion)

Pennines In Bloom

24 awards including a silver gilt and 22 It’s Your Neighbourhood entries.

• Outstanding contribution 2022 (Ray Smith, chairman of Pennines in Bloom)