Horticultural Shows

Where was ‘The Square’ in Whitchurch? And when did we have horticultural shows?

The answer to the first question is the land in front of the Three Elms Public House. I hear you cry ‘there’s no square, it’s just a thoroughfare’, and you’d be right. However, up until the First World War the pub, which was a much older structure, was set at an angle to the main road, with the land in front making an informal triangular ‘square’

And what about the second question? Well, we need to go back into the first half of the 19th century and the largesse of Thomas William Booker Blakemore MP, owner of the Melingriffith Tinplate Works

When TWBB inherited the works and also Velindre House from his uncle in the early 1800s, he became fabulously wealthy. He wanted to expand the works and consequently grow his own wealth. This he did, and by adding new mills and increasing capacity, and bringing in new workers. He built terraced cottages for them alongside the works. He also filled all the spare old buildings on the site with his new workers (but that’s a tale for yet another time!), and many families lived 2 or even 3 to each house

Business was booming and his growing workforce of hundreds were earning wages they probably hadn’t known before

But TWBB also wanted to ensure that his workers were looked after (in the context of early Victorian standards). He made sure that his workers had access to rudimentary healthcare, he introduced a savings scheme and also a (sort of) pension for those workers who lived to retirement age. He also ensured that all of the new cottages built had gardens so that the worker families could grow vegetables to supplement their diet

This was being done at the same time as he was transforming Velindre House from a magnificent luxury property to a fabulous pleasure palace (at least in Whitchurch standards!) within extensive gardens and grounds

To look after his growing family, TWBB had a small army of servants. And to look after his gardens and grounds he employed a head gardener, who lived in a house near to the stables, and probably another small army of gardeners and boys who would grow his vegetables, fruit and exotics in his glasshouses (and of course cutting the lawns by hand!)

To encourage his workers in their leisure time (did they have much?) he wanted them to compete in their own cottage garden efforts. He did this by holding bi-annual horticultural shows at The Square. He also encouraged the local villagers to take part too

We’ve been given a copy of a newspaper advertisement for the show in September 1846 by Darren, and this is copied below. The Wauntreoda Floral and Horticultural Show was obviously a grand affair with buses running between Cardiff and Whitchurch throughout the day. The landlord of the Three Elms obviously didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity of extra business either. I wonder what his fare was like for two and sixpence?

There are numerous newspaper reports of these shows, and they became incredibly popular. One dated 21st June 1845 reported that
‘The Melingriffith Floral & Horticultural Show, under the patronage of TW Booker Esq was held in the square in front of the Three Elms’

There were all sorts of categories in each show not only for vegetables but for flowers too. We don’t know too much about the humble workers who won various prizes over the years, but the newspapers made great reference to the head gardener at Velindre, who won numerous prizes each year. Well, if you’re going to hold a horticultural show and present prizes, it’s only natural that you’d want to win most of them yourself!

After TWWB died in 1858 there is very little report of his shows, so probably, the whole idea died with him. Although, by March 1862 (after the death of TWWB) the Cardiff Times reported
Gwauntreoda Eisteddfod
It is a source of great pleasure to the committee to find that the forthcoming meeting has been met with such a warm reception by the public generally; and no doubt many of the Cardiffians as well as the inhabitants of the suburbs of Cardiff, will find far more edifying and amusing than the Llandaff Fair

Does anyone know anything about later Eisteddfodau in Whitchurch? We’d love to hear from you

Nonetheless, the Whitchurch Horticultural Shows sound as though they were incredible spectacles whilst they lasted

The sketch below shows what the Three Elms might have looked like in 1892. I know this is years after the horticultural shows finished, but it still gives a flavour of how rural our village was, not so long ago. This sketch is one of a series used on our ‘Philog Experience’ walk back in the autumn

Is there any enthusiasm for reinstating the horticultural shows? What do you think? But probably not in ‘The Square’ as the traffic would win every time!

 

  Back