Our 50th Anniversary
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All our original planning included 'light refreshments'. As it turned out, these 'light refreshments' were what seemed to be a hearty banquet and no-one went hungry. The buffet table and other tables were very tastefully decorated with 'Golden Anniversary' decorations, made of ribbons turned into bows,50th Anniversary tablecloths, napkins and paper plates. |
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 A usual feature of our monthly meetings is our Plants and Sundries
sales. Members can bring along plants for sale, and the Branch holds a good
supply of pots, labels and pens. Naturally, on this particular evening, these
sales did a roaring trade. |
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To make the evening a little more 'special' a free Raffle was held, with some super prizes bought especially for the evening. Everyone who came was given a raffle ticket. |
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We are lucky to have one or two juniors and encourage all ages to take up the hobby. This young lad, Adrian Money, is a very keen young member. |
Saturday March 18th 2000 was the night Portsmouth and District Branch of
the BCSS celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a Party to remember. Apart
from our own members, a few Society officials were able to join us, along
with members from surrounding branches, Chichester, Southampton and the
Isle of Wight. A commemorative pin badge was produced for each Portsmouth
Branch member, with a small number set aside for visiting Speakers and for
the Judges at our two Shows.
President of the BCSS,
Gordon Rowley was our guest of honour for the evening. He gave a very
entertaining and anecdotal talk that everyone thoroughly enjoyed. One of
his other duties was to cut the special Anniversary cake, made into a
'50',complete with candles (although we made do with just 5 candles, one
for each ten years!)
Our Librarian, Alison Edwards (pictured) produced the most magnificent display
of Branch History ever produced. How she managed to get all the information
she was given from so many sources into some form of chronological order
is one of 'life's mysteries'. Members and visitors were thronging around
this display most of the evening and it was quite entertaining to see so
many newspaper photo's of past shows and so many of our members looking so
much younger! 
Many thanks to Richmond Edwards for providing the photographs on this page