WEST Kilbride Horticultural Society are celebrating their 150th anniversary this year,

The Summer Show will be on Saturday, August 17 in West Kilbride Village Hall and show schedules are available in most shops in the village. The show will be open to the public at 2pm and the tearoom will be providing the usual excellent home baking.

West Kilbride Horticultural Society’s ?rst Flower Show was held on Saturday, September 19, 1869 in the Free Church School.

In common with other societies in that period included classes for birds as well as horticultural exhibits. At this time there were many local large houses and estates with private gardens run by professional gardeners and rivalry was evident between those professional and the amateurs gardeners who represented a relatively small section of exhibitors.

The Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald of September 25, 1869 gave a glowing report of this ?rst show remarking that: “Doubts were at ?rst entertained as to the success of the show, but we are happy in being able to state, that through the exertions of the committee the school presented an appearance never before witnessed in West Kilbride”.

The newspaper continues to describe the exhibits and the afternoon and evening musical entertainmen,adding: “We regret that we have to state, that the absence of fruit here and there at the close of the show, and the breaking of some honey combs too plainly showed that while some came to feast their eyes, others came to feast their stomachs in much the same fashion as do the inmates of our country prison, whom we make no doubt they will acknowledge as brethren dear.”

Thereafter the show became an annual event as the Horticultural and Ornithological Exhibition and was ?nancially supported by the patronage of many local “gentry”.

The press noted in 1873 that: “ This Society endeavours to embrace and combine the di?erent tastes of the community, so that agricultural and the domestic pets are admitted, and were also well represented; and from the great and increasing interest evinced by the inhabitants, it would seem to be in a ?ourishing condition, and exerting a bene?cial and salutary local in?uence. In this respect the society is deserving of the liberal patronage and support which the local gentry have given it.”

The show dropped the ornithological classes after 1887 and became the West Kilbride Horticultural Society and travelled round venues in the village until 1900 when the Village Hall was opened and the Summer Show, then later the Spring Show, remained there apart from during the war years.

The show stopped in 1914 during the Great War and did not resume until 1934 and now had classes for cut flowers, pot plants, fruit, vegetables, honey, allotment holders section and industrial section (baking and preserves) and again this format continued until the onset of the Second World War when the Society held produce sales to raise funds for war charities and it was noted that there was a scramble to buy, with the Domestic Section soon cleared out.

Following resumption of activities in 1947, the Horticultural Society has continued without interruption until the present day. The Society has been presented with many trophies and prizes over the years to be awarded for various sections of the shows and these are often gifted by family and friends in memory of someone who has exhibited and supported the shows, the prize giving at the end of the show is always exciting, especially for the winners over the years.

The proposal of a spring bulb show to involve the local primary school became a reality with the ?rst Spring Show 1953 and this has continued until present with the Society providing da?odil bulbs for the schoolchildren and organising a “planting session” in the Primary School in October. The Schoolchildren’s section of the Spring and Summer Show has continued to grow and is important for the future of the activities of the Society.

The Spring and Summer Shows have continued with success over the years and depend on the work of the committee, volunteers and of course exhibitors to make the shows so enduring in the life of the village.

President John Kerr said: “Few societies or clubs in West Kilbride can claim to have existed for 150 years, but the Horticultural Society has, though in very di?erent, and more contemporary guise now. We have had to move with the times, and this as been re?ected in the changes we have seen over the years. From a laird’s gardener’s Show we hope we have developed into an all embracing show with sections for all, baking, vegetables, preserves, handicrafts, ?owers, pot plants, cactus and of course sections for children to enter. Our annual shows are part of West Kilbride life and as you can see in our history has been for many many years. I hope for continued support for our e?orts in the years to come.”

An exhibition of the 150 history of the West Kilbride Horticultural Society with details of all activities past and present, display of trophies and many photographs of exhibits is now on until the end of August in the West Kilbride Museum, 1st Floor, West Kilbride Village Hall, 1 Arthur Street, West Kilbrid