Chairman’s Message 2018

Welcome to the Chipstead Village Flower Show and Fair. This year is the 109th show, but there is evidence of a ‘Fair’ in Chipstead going back to 1549. The show was stopped in 1854 by the then new owner of the Shabden Estate, where the show was held, as he considered the show a nuisance! The show was revived by Lord Marshall of Shabden in the early 20th century and was first held on its current site, at Elmore, in 1947, thanks to Norman Wates where it continues to this day courtesy of John and Carol Wates.

With the proximity of Kenley and Biggin Hill airfields, Chipstead had a close involvement with the air force during the 2nd World War. Canadian air crew were billeted here and mosquito airframe parts were manufactured in the village. This year is the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the RAF and in honour of this event we plan to bring you (weather permitting) a repeat of the Spitfire fly over display that we had for the 100th show, in 2009.

We are hoping that the weather again will be good to us, and that you are all busy preparing your entries for the main event, the show marquee. Hopefully you managed to see all the magnificent entries last year, especially the children’s section and the superb cake entries.

Your committee never likes to stand still, so two new innovations are brought to you this year, the first is the schedule (which can be picked up in various locations around Chipstead) printed for the first time in colour, and second is this updated website where you can see all of the planned activities for this year’s show, past histories and photos of the 2017 show (courtesy of Elisabeth Spry) as well as being able to enter and pay for your classes on line. Our very grateful thanks go to Alexander Scrimgeour for his time and effort in setting this up.

The committee work so hard to organise this show, so can I thank them and all the other helpers and sponsors who make this show so successful. We are always looking for assistance prior to the show and on the day from anyone able to help.

Finally the entire committee was delighted to receive “The 2017 Volunteer Team Award” from The Mayor of Reigate and Banstead Council. Our thanks go to The Mayor, Councillor John Stevenson and Beverley Barry for all their assistance in helping us to achieve this award. Also to John and Carol Wates for allowing us to use Elmore once again for this year’s show.

I do hope you have a great day; next year’s show will be on Saturday 20th July 2019.

Peter Quiney – Chairman