The village’s much-loved biennial Open Gardens event has provided visitors with a colourful array of flowers and beautifully curated borders for twenty years. Ahead of this summer’s event, Val Robson traces Open Gardens back to its roots – from a seedling of an idea to full-grown success.
Open Gardens in Histon and Impington was the brainchild of Judy Wilson who, having moved to the village in 2004, was keen to start up such an event. There had been some one-off events in the years previously with a few gardens open to raise money for local schools and groups.
In summer 2006, the first Open Gardens committee comprising of Judy (chair), Inger Eade (secretary), Val Robson (treasurer), Jenny Phillips, Pippa Temple and Ann Whitmore met to plan the first event. Judy’s idea was to have around fifteen gardens open and create an event that raised money for charities – one local, one national and one international – but also host something that would bring the community together for a lovely day out. The event was to be held on a Sunday in June for around six hours with a plant stall on the Village Green on the Saturday morning the day before.
Exceeding expectations
Organisers hoped to raise at least £1,000 on that first Sunday in June 2007 so the committee were astonished to find they had raised a staggering £5,250 meaning the three beneficiaries – Histon Feast (later Histon and Impington Feast), Emmaus UK and VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) – each received £1,750.
There then followed a slightly anxious journey to the Coop Bank in the Grafton Centre the next morning by Judy and Val. Val was keen that they should appear frail and impoverished so as not to attract attention to the large amount of cash they were carrying! Using a wheeled shopping trolley certainly helped achieve that look! First lesson learned – move the group’s account to a local bank with a night deposit safe!
The plant sales proved popular, with the first one in 2007 raising over £800 and Pippa Temple and Sharon Chivers worked hard to establish this as a very successful and ongoing part of the Open Gardens event.
Blooming marvellous
Sixteen gardens opened in 2007 including one in Percheron Close overlooking a lake which was originally part of the Impington Hall estate owned by the Pepys family. The owner, Cordon Bleu-trained chef Kathryn Broe, served homemade cream teas. Another garden was Impington Windmill, where owners Pippa and Steve Temple served ploughman’s lunches and offered windmill tours. This garden is now part of the National Garden Scheme (NGS). Both these gardens proved extremely popular with most of the thousand or so visitors going to both.
The event also hugely benefitted from the creative skills of local professional graphic designer, Andrew Oliver, who generously volunteered his time to create eye-catching and beautiful posters and programmes. He also designed the purple and yellow logo that remains in use to this day. Cloth flags were printed, which are still flying strong, to mark the gardens that are open on the day.
Putting the village on the map
It was decided to sell event programmes, which gave details of the gardens and a map, in advance for a discounted cost, otherwise visitors could purchase the programme, which was their entry to all the gardens, on the day itself. Accompanied under 16s were to be free. Advance sales proved to be a good decision as, in the event of poor weather and potentially fewer visitors, there was still a good amount raised for the charities.
In fact the only time when the weather was less than favourable was in 2011 when it was cold and wet all day. Amazingly, the event still raised £6,000 for the charities and a large number of people braved the weather regardless.
Hardy perennials
Following the success of the first event the committee discussed repeating the event into the future and the decision was taken to make it biennial. A few extra attractions were introduced at the second event: live music in some gardens, gardening book sales, postcards for sale with high quality photos of gardens from the previous event and specially printed balloons with the Open Gardens logo on to help visitors spot the open gardens in addition to the flags.
Introducing live music was a resounding success and is still a big feature of the event. The other three additions were not repeated – balloons popped as soon as they blew into any nearby bush, the books donated were mostly very large and heavy to transport and the postcards were a logistical challenge. On the day volunteer ‘runners’ (myself and husband on bicycles) were moving batches of postcards from garden to garden as owners rang to say ‘I’ve run out of postcard x’. They also made a not very impressive profit of £7.15 for the charities!
The 2011 event was sixteen open gardens plus Tony Hillier’s Sculpture Garden, with some offering refreshments and music – a format that has continued to this day. The Information Point on the Village Green, opening an hour before the start of the event, started that year and proved to be another excellent idea to stay.
Judy Wilson stepped down from the committee after that third event, but is still involved in a helper capacity, as are some of the initial committee.
Ever since, Open Gardens has gone ahead biennially – with the exception of the pandemic when there was a gap of three years due to COVID regulations being still in force in June 2021. A very enjoyable and innovative ‘Virtual Open Gardens’ took place online during 2020.
Blossoming over time
Since its very beginning, Open Gardens has been a much-loved date in the H&I village calendar. Histon Manor joined in for the first time in 2019, after new owners Katherine and Rob Mann moved in. This was a huge draw and attracted over 1600 visitors resulting in a massive £10,000 being donated to charity – double that of the previous Open Gardens event!
Other additions have also popped up over the years – with members of the Village Society and the Archaeology Group on hand in some gardens with their expert knowledge.
It takes a village…
Of course, Open Gardens could not have gone ahead without the generous gifts of time and money from a large number of volunteers, sponsors and advertisers, plus the local shops and cafes who have acted as sellers for the advance programmes over the years.
£63,040 has been raised from the nine events going to twenty different causes including Histon and Impington Feast who have been recipients every year.
Beneficiary charities are now suggested by the committee and by garden owners opening that year – with final decisions laying with the committee. Chosen charities are all invited to be give a short talk about their cause to the owners in the spring before the event and encouraged to offer volunteers to help on the day itself.
Over the years, almost 80 private gardens here in H&I have opened to the public, with the added bonus of some of the communal areas such as the Histon and Impington Community Orchard and Bramley Court Care Home garden making an appearance too.
The tenth event will be held on Sunday 14 June 2026 – be sure to mark it in your diary! Find out more at the Open Gardens website.
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Looking forward to seeing the gardens for the first time