This year’s flower and veg show is on Saturday, September 3 at the community centre on Conduit Hill, and planning for it is underway. In order to finance the show we ask local businesses and organisations for sponsorship and invite adverts in our show schedule.
A ‘cold call’ at the Heritage Centre at Strand Quay and a conversation with its manager, Simon Parsons, revealed an unexpected literary connection between Rye’s Flower and Veg Show and one of our nation’s finest authors. In his journal in the late summer of 1852, Charles Dickens writes that he was persuaded to leave London for “the remote neighbourhood of Romney Marsh” to attend a show run by the Rye District Cottagers Horticultural Society.
Further description would indicate the event was probably held in the grounds of Mountsfield. Dickens wrote of the show and the town in glowing terms. The journals of Charles Dickens can be read in full online. We’re most grateful to Simon for unearthing this gem of history. It’s great to think that the annual show has links back 170 and more years.
If you would like to sponsor a category in this year’s show, there’s still time. Please contact us at ryeflowerandvegshow@btinternet.com or on phone Lorna on 07553 982 829.
The list of classes for this year’s show has just been published on our website and the show schedule will be out in due course. As in 1852, the show is open to everyone in Rye and surrounding area. You could say we’re looking forward to this year’s show with ‘great expectations’!
Image Credits: Rye Flower and Veg Show .