Britain in Bloom boost

Ralph Warburton of ADAS will be travelling to Southport tomorrow in the hope that Audlem has won an award in the Britain in Bloom competition.

The village's chances must, we think, have received a boost from one of the community's younger members. Ralph explained all at last week's ADAS (Audlem District Amenities Society) meeting.

While he was taking the Britain in Bloom judges around the village in July, he explained to them that in Audlem the community effort was even more than planting out and tending troughs, hanging baskets, flower beds and the like.

That effort involved encouraging the children at Audlem St James school to grow plants each year. This year, ADAS had presented every child at the school with four sweet corn plants each – a thousand seedlings in all – which they were to nurture through the summer.

Just then, by chance, a young girl appeared on the scene. Ralph asked her, with the judges listening on, how well her sweet corn plants were growing. "Well'" she replied instantly, "the chickens ate two of them. But then a fox ate the chickens and the other two plants are doing well!"

That reply, we guess, must have boosted Audlem's chances considerably. Even the most hardened of judges will have been impressed by that memorable response for a long time to come.

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