Catalogue description Bristol Gardens Guild

Minutes, Accounts, Correspondence, Press Cuttings.

Bristol Gardens Guild, 1929-1976

Deposited by Miss Elsa M. Habgood

The Bristol Gardens Guild was founded in 1929 largely due to the efforts of Bristol members of the National Gardens Guild, to which the Bristol branch remained an affiliated member until 1968. As part of the Guild's work in encouraging people to appreciate gardens and flowers, competitions for window-boxes and back-gardens in housing estates were organised. In schools where a guild member was on the staff, bulbs were distributed to schoolchildren and certificates awarded for the best-grown pots of bulbs. During the 1930s the Guild also distributed bulbs in derelict city churchyards, encouraged the planting of bulbs in College Green and Queen Square and succeeded the Bristol and District Gardeners Mutual Improvement Society as organisers of a Spring Flower Show in the Corn Exchange. Work was curtailed during the 1939-45 war but in 1947 the Guild undertook the maintenance of gardens at four almshouses in the city. School connections, meetings and an annual contribution to the Prison Gardening Association continued and social outings to visit houses and gardens were introduced. Financial and other difficulties experienced by the National Gardens Guild led to the Bristol branch severing its affiliation in 1965. Increased running costs, falling membership and the fact that many of the activities previously undertaken by the Guild had been taken over by the Corporation and other bodies led to the decision in 1976 to wind up the Guild's affairs.

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