About the Group

How the Group started

"It was early spring of 1986 when a gentleman living in Houghton Conquest, Mid-Beds, visited the Royal Horticultural Society Show at Westminster. He was captivated by the exhibition put on by the Alpine Garden Society and sought permission to set up a group in the Bedfordshire area. By October Jeff Watts had organised the inaugural meeting, which fourteen people attended. This was held at the Wilstead Garden Centre and a committee was elected. The first monthly meeting was held on the 4th of December 1986, when our speaker was Michael Upward, the AGS Secretary. The Group continued to meet at the Garden Centre until March 1988, when it became obvious that more space was needed. It was then we moved to the village hall at Wilstead. A monthly newsletter has been issued since mid 1989."

-Taken from the Members' Handbook of the Alpine Garden Society Bedfordshire Group that was published in the early 1990's. The Group's membership has steadily increased and we now have around thirty members who rejoin annually and new faces visit us every year. We still meet on the first Monday of the month, excluding January went we don't have a meeting and May when we meet on the second Monday due to the Bank Holiday. Our venue is still the Wilstead Village Hall, which was rebuilt a few years ago and now has facilities to accommodate the hard of hearing. A few things have changed - the newsletter continues to be sent out monthly and gives details of Group meetings, Society news, dates for your diaries etc, but now most of our members receive it by e-mail. Another valuable communication medium is the web-site you're reading now and our new Facebook page - see sidebar for link.

Although we encourage our members to join the Alpine Garden Society, it is not necessary to do so in order to join our Group.

Some of our Members will give talks to local Garden Clubs. Click here for list of talks given by Liz Livermore. If interested you can contact Liz on Contact Liz