Middleton Hall Set For A Blooming Beautiful Spring
Green-fingered residents and staff at Middleton Hall Retirement Village have been hard at work planting 15,000 daffodil bulbs to ensure a dazzling display along the entrance drive next Spring.
A stunning welcome will greet visitors along the Woodland entrance drive to the estate on the outskirts of Middleton St George, near Darlington, thanks to the gardening enthusiasts’ efforts.
The planting initiative follows the Hall’s successes at the recent 2019 Northumbria in Bloom Awards.
After Middleton Hall walked away from the event with a clutch of awards including a small cash prize, the Hall’s estate’s team decided to put it towards purchasing the bulbs.
The resulting planting project saw co-owners and residents digging in together to create another eye-catching element to the Hall’s award-winning grounds.
Middleton Hall scooped both a gold award and ‘Best New Entry’ in the ‘Small Village’ category at the 2019 Northumbria in Bloom Awards, both of which recognised the great contribution that residents have made during 2019.
Thom Robinson, Head Gardener at Middleton Hall said: “For the first time this year we entered the Northumbria in Bloom competition as a ‘Small Village’, which meant that the judging criteria became a lot harder.
“Despite this, we were successful in two categories which is testament to the whole of the Middleton Hall village, as community involvement makes up a huge part of the scoring.”
The grounds were not the only aspect of Middleton Hall that received accolades at the Northumbria in Bloom Awards.
The Hall’s resident-led allotment group entered for the first time this year and won a silver gilt award and Pat Webb Middleton Woods resident received an ‘It’s Your Neighbourhood’ award which recognises volunteer gardeners in their community.
Tony Crompton added: “Everyone felt honoured to receive recognition from a prestigious, professional, outside body and the allotment group have said they’ll be chasing the gold next year!”