AMBITIOUS plans for a revamped West Woodhay Garden Show saw 5,000 visitors flock to the village yesterday (Saturday).
Originally started as a garden open day, the expanded event included trade stands, show gardens, an inter-school grub-in-a-tub contest, tea gardens, art show and free valuations from auctioneers Dreweatt Neate.
The two-day event also allowed visitors to explore the 20 acres of beautifully manicured grounds surrounding the 17th century West Woodhay House.
Estate owner Harry Henderson said they wanted to “do things properly” this year, and hoped the upgraded event would pull in more visitors.
He said: "We've sold about 2,500 advance tickets and had another 2,500 turn up today - so we've had about 5,000 people, which is about the right number for the garden.”
He added that a lot of work had gone into preparing the grounds for the show.
“We have three gardeners here, John Connor is head gardener. They've worked extremely hard. It’s probably taken two years to get the gardens looking like this.”
The show gardens were judged on Friday night, with Earthwise Garden Design scooping the gold medal for their sustainable and environmentally-friendly effort.
The grub-in-a-tub contest was won by Newbury’s John Rankin School, who defeated 14 other entries to take the prize.

To hear more from Harry Henderson and the show’s prize winners, click the view video link.

Click on the link below for pictures from the show.