| Taunton Flower Show | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Genre | Flower show |
| Dates | Early August |
| Location(s) | Taunton, Somerset, England |
| Years active | 187 |
| Founded | 1831 |
| Patron(s) | Bob Homeshaw [1] |
| Website | http://www.tauntonfs.co.uk |
Taunton Flower Show is an annual flower show held in Vivary Park, Taunton, Somerset, England. [2] It has been described as "The Chelsea of the West", [3] and attracts around 17,000 visitors over its two days. [4]
The show was first held in 1831 and apart from during the Second World War, has been held every year since. The history of the show is documented in a book by Anne Leamon, a current Vice Chairman, and cited as the 'Longest running Show in country' [5] There has been controversy in 2017 when Taunton Deane Borough Council decided to impose a rental on the Taunton Flower Show for the use of Vivary Park which put a question mark over its future on the site [6] but at present the Flower Show is remaining at Vivary Park whilst continuing to review its budgets. [7] The Chairman then Adrian Prior-Sankey was awarded the MBE in 2018 "for service to the community of Taunton" [8]
The show missed a year in 2020 due to the Covid pandemic and the 2021 show was a much smaller one held on Castle Green in Taunton. From 2022 the show returned to its traditional venue in Vivary Park.
In 2023 the show upgraded its organisational software to showingscene
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London. Held at Chelsea since 1912, the show is attended by members of the British royal family.
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century monastic foundation, owned by the Bishops of Winchester, which was rebuilt as Taunton Castle by the Normans in the 12th century. Parts of the inner ward house were turned into the Museum of Somerset and Somerset Military Museum. For the Second Cornish uprising of 1497, Perkin Warbeck brought an army of 6,000; most surrendered to Henry VII on 4 October 1497. On 20 June 1685 in Taunton the Duke of Monmouth crowned himself King of England in a rebellion, defeated at the Battle of Sedgemoor. Judge Jeffreys led the Bloody Assizes in the Castle's Great Hall.
Taunton Deane was a local government district with borough status in Somerset, England. Its council was based in Taunton.
West Somerset was a local government district in the English county of Somerset from 1974 to 2019. The council covered a largely rural area, with a population of 34,900 in an area of 740 square kilometres (290 sq mi); it was the least populous non-unitary district in England. According to figures released by the Office for National Statistics in 2009, the population of West Somerset had the oldest average age in the United Kingdom at 52. The largest centres of population were the coastal towns of Minehead and Watchet (4,400).
The Hampton Court Garden Festival is an annual British flower show, held in early July of each year. The show is run by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) at Hampton Court Palace in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. The show features show gardens, floral marquees and pavilions, talks, and demonstrations. Erected on the north and south sides of the Long Water in Hampton Court Park, it is the second major national show after the Chelsea Flower Show, but has a different character, focusing more on environmental issues, growing your own food, vegetables and cookery, as well as selling gardening accessories, plants and flowers.
Comeytrowe is a south western suburb of Taunton and former civil parish, now in the parish of Taunton in the county of Somerset, England. In 2011 the parish had a population of 5,463. The parish included the area of Galmington.
Taunton Deane was a constituency in Somerset represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament.
Taunton Deane Borough Council in Somerset, England was elected every four years. The first elections to the council were held in 1973, ahead of it coming into being in 1974. The last election was held in 2015. The council was abolished in 2019 when the district merged with neighbouring West Somerset district to become Somerset West and Taunton.
Somerset Council, known until 2023 as Somerset County Council, is the local authority for the non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England. Since 2023 it has been a unitary authority, being a county council which also performs the functions of a district council. The non-metropolitan county of Somerset is smaller than the ceremonial county, which additionally includes Bath and North East Somerset and North Somerset.
Norton Fitzwarren railway station is an untimetabled station on the West Somerset Railway in Somerset, England. It was built in 2009 about 1⁄4 mile (0.4 km) north of the site of the old station that served the village of Norton Fitzwarren from 1873 until 1961. There were fatal railway accidents in the vicinity in 1890, 1940 and 1978.
Musgrove Park Hospital is a large NHS hospital located in Taunton, Somerset, England, run by Somerset NHS Foundation Trust. Originally a US Army General Hospital during the Second World War, it became an NHS hospital in 1951.
Vivary Park is a public open space in Taunton, Somerset, England.
Taunton Priory, or the Priory of St Peter and St Paul, was an Augustinian house of canons founded c. 1115 by William Gyffarde, Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England near Taunton, Somerset, England.
Poundisford Park north of Pitminster, Somerset, England is an English country house that typifies progressive housebuilding on the part of the West Country gentry in the mid-16th century. The main house was built for William Hill around 1550 and has been designated as a Grade I listed building.
The 2011 Taunton Deane Borough Council election took place on 5 May 2011 to elect members of Taunton Deane Borough Council in Somerset, England. The whole council was up for election and the council stayed under no overall control. The Conservatives won 28 seats, exactly half, while the Liberal Democrats took 23. Labour only won three seats, with the two remaining held by independent candidates. Falling only one seat short of an overall majority, the Conservatives took on the leadership of the council as a minority administration, under Councillor John Williams.
Rebecca Pow, is a British Conservative politician who served as the Member of Parliament (MP) for Taunton Deane from 2015 to 2024. She also served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Nature from November 2023 to 4 July 2024. Pow lost her bid to be elected as the Member of Parliament (MP) for the revised Taunton and Wellington seat to Gideon Amos of the Liberal Democrats in the 2024 United Kingdom General Election. Pow previously served as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs from 2019 to 2022.
Somerset West and Taunton was a local government district in Somerset, England, from 2019 to 2023. It was established on 1 April 2019 by the Somerset West and Taunton Order 2018. The council replaced the Taunton Deane and West Somerset councils, which governed the same area from 1974.
Taunton and Wellington is a constituency of the House of Commons in the UK Parliament. Further to the completion of the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, it was first contested at the 2024 general election, with Gideon Amos of the Liberal Democrats taking the seat with a majority of 11,939. The predecessor seat, Taunton Deane, had been held by Rebecca Pow of the Conservative Party since 2015.
51°00′22″N3°05′53″W / 51.006°N 3.098°W
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