Twyford In Bloom

What was achieved?

Gold in 2019. Silver Gilt in 2018, 2017 and 2016. Colleton Primary school has won the school category and we’ve been winner of three other categories too: Heritage, Business Involvement and Community.

• Gardening and litter picking working parties
  Gardening activities have expanded throughout the village. An insect friendly area at Jubilee Corner was completed in 2010. Our sites include Polehampton Corner, Twyford library, Stanlake planter, planter at Bell Corner and the Millenium flower bed/border in the Parish burial ground at St Mary’s church. We urgently need more volunteers to help maintain these areas in our village.  

• Adopt a Street
  Twyford Together has a team of volunteers who regularly keep their road, group of streets or local footpath free from rubbish.
  
  Enquire about signing up for your local area and you could be equipped with your very own litter picker and special Adopt a Street green litter sacks. Email: twyaas@btinternet.com 

• Hanging Baskets
  We started out with 42 in June 2015, thanks to funding from local businesses and Twyford Together patron Lady Elizabeth Godsal.  An injection of cash from Twyford Parish Council and more applications from residents enabled us to install 103 in 2019. Three new hanging basket posts were also installed in Tesco car park by Twyford Parish Council. Residents are invited to purchase their own lamp posts.

• Front Garden Competition
  Run by Sheeplands in 2016 and 2017, this was a competition to create and maintain the most impressive residential front garden

• Snooker Hall Garden
  Thanks to donations from Treetop Landscapes this area was tidied and planted.

• Fruit Trees for Schools
  This project aims to engage children in fruit growing by giving them the opportunity to plant their own trees on school premises. The children are able to monitor the trees’ growth, record their progress and will eventually be able to pick and eat the produce straight ‘from source’. The trees (pear, apple, plum and cherry were kindly donated by Treetop Landscapes and the planting, which took place in Sep 2016, was supervised by the Twyford and Ruscombe Horticultural Association. 

• Flower bed in “Tesco Alleyway”
  The project was part funded by Tesco ‘Bags of Help Thames Valley’, created by Ruscombe Design and Build Ltd, planted by Treetop Landscapes and coordinated by Paul Cassidy from Twyford Together (Jul 2017)

• Community art project
  Nine paintings by children from The Colleton School, Polehampton Infant and Junior Schools and Charvil Piggott Primary School adorn the alleyway. (Apr 2018 & Jul 2019) 

• Twinning Association Garden
  Improved the old Polehampton school flower beds that go onto the high street – a great collaboration to celebrate Twyford’s twinning with the French town, Cuincy: Nick Barnes from Treetop Landscapes provided shrubs and mulch, Andrew Cardy from Riverways provided fertilizer and the work was done by Twyford cubs, our Twyford In Bloom team, Twyford Twinning Association and Renate and her boys. Some plants were brought back from Cuincy and planted! (Jul 2018)

• Wildflower areas in King George’s Field
  Twyford Together has a small team of volunteers who are rewilding areas of King George’s Field in collaboration with Twyford Parish Council.  Over the autumn, the area was scythed and ox eye daisy, red clover, cuckoo flower, birds foot trefoil, red campion, bluebell bulbs, tufted vetch, scabious and orange hawkweed and crocus tomasinia were planted. Call for volunteers? (Apr 2019)

• Umbrella installation
  La Fontana passage. Funded by Tesco Bags of Help. (May 2019)

• Refill outdoor water fountain
  If you’re #ReadyToRefill, you can (as of May 2019) take your bottle down to the back of the youth centre in King George’s Field for a top up or have a drink. Twyford and District Youth and Community Centre made this Twyford Together idea happen (Kathy Peck and Dave Turner) with funding from Tesco Bags of Help Thames Valley. #RefillRevolution #PlasticFreeCommunity

• Recycling
  Terracycle collection points at HaaHoos, TDYC, Binghams. Ink jet cartridge and toner recycling. Contact Lens recycling at Newdays. Furthermore, this helps to raise money for local charities. Started in July 2019.

• Bee Friendly Together
  ‘Bee Friendly Together’ cotton tote bags were handed out in Jun 2019 at the Donkey Derby. Attached to each bag was a delightful top tip to help residents bring back the bees (written by the children from Polehampton Junior School and Charvil Piggott Primary School). The bags were sponsored by two “Bee Friendly” businesses in RG10: Hare Hatch Sheeplands and Binghams Brewery, designed by Julian Clark Creative Ltd – Freelance Graphic Design & Art Direction and produced by Ideal Branding. Other activities at the Twyford Together stall included a Bee Friendly plant and homemade, beeswax lip balm & soy candle sale, eco tombola (showcasing £600 worth of products recommended by Twyford Together Facebook followers and donated by companies) and a “Guess the number of bags in an eco brick” competition (the prize is a £65 family ticket for The Eden Project). 

• Green lampposts
  The David Brownlow Charitable Foundation www.DBCF.com is coordinating and funding a project installing ‘Living Lampposts’ in Twyford, with the first one going up in Dec 2019 outside the United Reform Church. These smart living pillars are the same concept as ‘Green Walls’, but on lampposts to take up less space. They absorb pollutants as well as encourage biodiversity in urban spaces. They have bird boxes and insect houses, and they use solar energy for self-irrigation so no water wastage. 

• Friends of Loddon Community Nature Reserve
  Encourage biodiversity

• Wildlife Safaris
  Annual event which started in 2015. Trail around the Loddon Nature Reserve. Involves lots of activities for children including mini-beast hunting and bird spotting as well as a BBQ at The Duke. 

Future plans include a mural depicting Twyford’s heritage and a “Bee Highway”.