At their July meeting, Pant WI welcomed Douglas Wood, the National Garden Scheme’s publicity officer for Shropshire.
Members heard how the NGS started in 1927 and were surprised to learn that its foundation came about because of the need for funding of district nurses. A Liverpool merchant and philanthropist, Willam Rathbone, had employed a nurse to look after his wife at home during her final illness. Recognising that not everyone had access to care at home, he worked with Florence Nightingale to develop such a service. As Douglas noted, many members would remember well the sight of a district nurse on her bicycle making house visits.
As a result, the Queen’s Nursing Institute was founded, which coordinated national standard for district nurses. In order to raise money for this fledgling service, it was suggested that people opened their gardens and, in 1927, 609 gardens did so and charged ‘a shilling a head’. The famous yellow guidebook was first published in 1932 and in 1980 the NGS scheme became independent of the QNI and started to raise money for a range of nursing and health charities. Macmillan Cancer Support joined their list of beneficiaries in 1984 and nearly £20 million has been donated to the charity to date. In 2025, the list of beneficiaries also included Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, Parkinson’s UK. In 2025, the money raised for distribution to all the charities was an amazing £4.5 million.
Accompanied by photos of many he had visited in Shropshire and beyond, Douglas gave an overview of the many types of gardens that open as part of the scheme: private gardens; country houses; designer gardens; and allotment gardens. Also gardens in a particular village often come together to open on the same day. It will be the 150th anniversary of the NGS in 2027 and they would like to get as many of the 609 original gardens to open as part of the celebrations. Douglas and his wife, Jane, open their garden in Pant each year for group visits and members are looking forward to a tour in August followed by a pub meal.
The competition was ‘A small vase of three garden flowers’. Jane Thompson took first place, Eiry Roberts was second and Amanda Roberts was third.
New members or anyone who is interested in coming along and finding out more about Pant WI, please get in touch at pantwi1931@gmail.com. Meetings are held on the first Thursday of every month at 7.15pm at Pant Memorial Hall.