A new planting bed was dug out of the grass verge at the entrance to Clover Heath on 8th February 2015. It is intended to plant the bed with a range of colourful shrubs to give all year colour and interest

200 trees were planted at Sutton Farm on 9th March 2015 by a group of 14 children from Claverley school. The trees, all native hardwoods, were supplied by the Woodland Trust.

Following on from the successful school litter pick session in October a further exercise was carried out on 23rd March. Nine children from Claverley school collected several bags of assorted waste material from the footpath at the rear of the three pubs and the nearby area.

CIB members were joined by other volunteers in a tidy up of the Bull Ring on Easter Saturday 4th April. The exercise was extended over the holiday weekend to include a litter pick of the village approach roads. A large skip, kindly supplied for the green waste by Colin Smithyman, was completely full by the time it was collected.

Philip Dunne planted an oak tree in the Aston Lane bank on 17th April 2015 to mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of Claverley in Bloom. The tree was grown from an acorn gathered from one of the oldest oak trees in the parish.

A group of 6 children from the school planted 64 wildflowers in the churchyard on 6th May 2015 as part of an ongoing church/school/CIB ecological project to enhance the diversity of the site. A further planting exercise is planned for 2016.

The Berkeley Salon Ensemble (a group of 10 musicians from the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) performed a well received concert in the church on 9th May. The concert, in aid of CIB funds, was only possible because of the generosity of an anonymous benefactor who donated the entire performance fee of £2,400. This enabled tickets to be offered at only £12.50 each

This years scheme consists of Begonia Illumination series “apricot shades”, Salvia Farinacia “Victoria” and purple trailing Surfinias. Golden trailing Lysmachia has also been added to obtain contrast. The plants were all raised by Nick Bromley of Rushmere Nurseries and installed in all village planters on 6th June. The winter shrubs that were removed to make way for the summer scheme have been either saved for re-use or planted elsewhere.

On 9th June 2015 Youth Club members planted a wide range of small shrubs in the newly created bed at the entrance to Clover Heath. The shrubs, which are all easy maintenance were chosen by CIB to give all-year colour and interest.

The competition was judged on 28th July by John McAlle, ex-Wolves player turned landscape designer and contractor.

John was really impressed with the standard of the horticultural displays in the village. Judging was carried out using plant quality and selection and overall visual impact as the main criteria.The final round of judging consisted of 16 front gardens/displays from around the entire village. The prize winners, who were separated by just a few points, were:

1st £50 – Karen & Keith Horton of the Plough Inn 2nd £25 – Lalita & John Wentworth, Cornerways, High St 3rd £15 – Vic & Maureen Parton, Danford Heath

Highly commended: Jane Wherton, Danford Heath, Dorothy & Eric Greenfield, Danford Lane

CIB intends to run the competition again next year. Judging is likely to take place at the end of July and details will be announced well in advance to give everyone the chance to prepare

A beautiful summer’s day greeted RHS judges Mel Henley and Nigel Bishop to the village on Saturday 8th August. They were welcomed at the church by vicar Garry Ward, chair of the Parish Council David Cowie, Shropshire Councillor Tina Woodward and the CIB committee.

The tour began with a brief presentation by Sue Burns of the Claverley Memories “Napoleonic War” exhibition mounted in the South Gatacre chapel. From there the judges walked to the school outdoor classroom where they were met by school head Jo Derrer and a group of children who described how the area is used. The judges then walked to Aston Lane to take part in an informal unveiling of the new bench installed in memory of dedicated village supporter Sheila Higham who died last November. Joe Higham was present along with his family and a number of friends and neighbours.

Jo Derrer and the group of schoolchildren were on hand to meet the judges at the school planting beds. A short drive then took the tour party to Clover Heath to meet Youth Club leader Scott Lawrence and a couple of members who described their involvement in the creation of the new planting bed.

Malcolm Hinton and Colin Bailey welcomed the judges to Griffiths Green. After a brief look at the verge planting bed and nearby gardens the judges were driven to inspect the flower displays at Winchester Crossroads and then onwards down High St to meet John and Lalita Wentworth in their garden at Cornerways.

After a visit to see the Plough Inn planting displays the judges called at the Post Office to meet Kay White. They then stopped in the Bull Ring to admire the planting troughs before ending their tour in the north churchyard where Garry Ward, Jo Derrer and children talked about the churchyard eco project.

Overall the tour went extremely well. The judges genuinely enjoyed the experience and in particular meeting so many people during the course of the tour. Unfortunately this meant that the tour party was extremely late coming back into the church for the village reception. Apologies to those who came along hoping to meet the judges but had to leave earlier.

We are extremely grateful for the help received in preparing for the judges’ visit.

The winter scheme was installed in all of our planting troughs on 10th October. We managed to save most of the shrubs from last year’s scheme and these have been used in the central village planters and Winchester Crossroads. The other outlying troughs have been planted with a range of newly purchased heathers and small shrubs. We steered clear of pansies and violas this year as they performed badly in previous winters. If funds allow we will add some colourful primroses or primulas to give the troughs a lift in the spring

11 volunteers turned out in appalling weather on 7th Nov to plant the remaining area of the churchyard alongside Church St. Around 4,000 bulbs were planted out of the 5,000 ordered. In a parallel exercise the Youth Club carried out a 300 bulb planting session at the entrance to Clover Heath. The remainder of the bulbs were planted in various locations around the village including the 5 main village entrance points

Many thanks to everyone who came along to the quiz night at the Plough on 28th January. Keith & Karen Horton generously donated £180 from the ticket sales to CIB and the raffle raised a further £178 which gave a very useful total for the evening.

A group of 9 children from Claverley School took part in a tree planting session at Sutton Farm on 9th March 2016. In all 90 whips of native species were planted in the exercise, which was led by Paul Pickerill of CIB with the kind co-operation of Richard and Caroline Kempsey.

The event on 12th March 2016 was very well attended. The Hype created a great atmosphere and a good evening was had by all. Proceeds from the event will go towards projects such as the annual autumn daffodil bulb planting.

Many thanks to everyone who contributed towards the evening including Keith Horton of the Plough who set up the bar.

A school litter pick took place on Monday 14th March. CIB has been organising litter picking sessions with the school for many years but this was the first time that a whole class of 29 children had been involved.

CIB committee members spent the whole of Sunday morning 10th April 2016 scouring the verges of three of the main approach roads to the village. The areas covered were from the Upper Ludstone B4176 turn-off to Cottons Holloway, Upper Aston to Bulls Bank and part of the road from the A458 to Pound Street. Safety was the prime concern so it was necessary to deploy vehicles with warnings signs at each end of the stretches of road involved. Shropshire Council provided litter grabs and waste sacks

As would be expected, a large amount of material was collected ranging from plastic bags, cans, fast food cartons and bottles through to builder’s rubble, car parts and sections of wooden pallets. Altogether the exercise generated about 20 sacks of rubbish

CIB will no doubt organise further sessions in the future but the job is labour intensive, difficult to organise and not without risk. The problem would be far worse without the unfailing efforts of many in the parish who routinely pick up litter as they walk the lanes.

A party of 9 children from the school planted 100 pot grown wildflower plants in a small part of the upper churchyard on 14th April 2016. Several wildflower varieties were chosen in an attempt to enrich the diversity of the area. CIB chose to purchase decent sized plants rather than use seed which requires much more preparation and gives a less certain result. The varieties included Ladies Bedstraw, Cowslip, Field Scabious, Meadow Clary, Birds Foot Trefoil, Selfheal and Toadflax

The children will return to monitor the progress of the plants during the rest of the year. The churchyard itself provides a good facility for wildlife study and CIB has offered to fund a visit by a wildlife expert from Shropshire Wildlife Trust to run a fieldwork study session with the school.

CIB is grateful to Keith & Karen Horton who ran a cake sale in aid of CIB funds on 6^th & 7^th May 2016. Thanks also to the many people who supported the event by either making or consuming large amounts of cake!

The footpath at the rear of the 3 pubs and school outdoor classroom was strimmed by CIB committee members on 25^th May 2016. The wildflowers in the community orchard area looked particularly good this year so strimming was kept to the minimum.  CIB tries to keep the footpath vegetation under control during the summer months but is limited by the time and availability of committee members and volunteers.

To ensure that village looked at its very best for the Flower Festival CIB committee members carried out a spruce up session in churchyard and Bull Ring on Wednesday 25th May

The competition was judged on 1st August by Douglas Cockburn of New Barns Nurseries, Hilton. Douglas was really impressed with the standard of the horticultural displays in the village. Judging was carried out using plant quality and selection and overall visual impact as the main criteria.

The final round of judging consisted of 13 front gardens/displays from around the entire village. The prize winners, who were separated by just a few points, were:

• 1st £50 – Jenny Brain & Lynn Walker, 39 The Wold
• 2nd £25 – Karen & Keith Horton, Plough Inn
• 3rd £15 – Bob & Margaret Scott, 29 Clover Heath

Highly commended

• Vic Parton, Danford Heath
• Geoff Cashmore, Conifers, Lodge Park

CIB intends to run the competition again next year. Judging is likely to take place at the end of July and details will be announced well in advance to give everyone the chance to prepare

The winter scheme was installed in all of our planting troughs on 15th October. We managed to save most of the shrubs from the 2015/16 scheme and these have been used in the central village planters and Winchester Crossroads. The other outlying troughs have been planted with a range of newly purchased heathers and small shrubs. We steered clear of pansies and violas this year as they performed badly in previous winters. If funds allow we will add some colourful primroses or primulas to give the troughs a lift in the spring. As previously all suitable green material is composted to be used in future planting schemes.

A small group of hardy volunteers turned out in frosty conditions on 6th Nov to plant daffodil bulbs in the Aston Lane bank. The team concentrated on gaps remaining from plantings carried in previous years and the narrow strip of grass verge running up the northern side of Aston Lane from the Wold junction. The planting was particularly difficult this year as the ground was hard through lack of rain.
The Aston Lane planting used most of the bulbs. However, in a later exercise Scott & Tammy Lawrence led members of the Youth Club in planting 250 bulbs in green spaces around the Clover Heath and Danford areas.

Many thanks to Keith and Karen Horton of the Plough for hosting the winter quiz on 1st February and for everyone who came along to support it.
The contestants were fully tested by Keith’s searching questions and the evening, fuelled by good food and a busy bar, was enjoyed by all. Thanks to Keith and Karen’s generously, plus the proceeds of the raffle we were able to add just under £200 to CIB funds.

CIB has been working with Claverley School to raise awareness of the environmental and health issues associated with littering and dog fouling. In an effort to broadcast the message more widely CIB sponsored a poster competition, offering prizes for the children producing the best designs in respect of both subjects.
The resulting posters showed considerable flair and imagination. Judging was carried out jointly by CIB and the Parish Council and choosing the winning entries was extremely difficult given the high standards achieved.
Gift tokens to the value of £15, £10 and £5 were awarded to the top 3 entries in each category. The posters will be displayed at various locations around the village.

Claverley in Bloom and Claverley School have been running annual tree planting sessions for several years and have planted well over 1,000 trees in various locations close to the village in that time.
This year’s exercise took place at Ashford Hall Farm on 20th March, with the kind cooperation of landowner Jonathan Kendrick. Over 100 whips of native species were installed by the children. CIB was able to purchase the trees thanks to a generous donation from Hager Ltd, a leading manufacturer of electrical installation equipment based in Telford.

CIB committee members and volunteers spent the whole of Sunday morning 9th April scouring the verges of the main approach roads to the village. The areas covered were from the Upper Ludstone B4176 turn-off to Cottons Holloway, Upper Aston to Bulls Bank and the road from the A458 to Pound Street. Safety was the prime concern so it was necessary to deploy vehicles with warnings signs at each end of the stretches of road involved. Shropshire Council provided litter grabs and waste sacks
As would be expected, a large amount of material was collected ranging from plastic bags, cans, fast food cartons and bottles. Altogether the exercise generated about 15 sacks of rubbish.
Some members of the team also took the opportunity to clean around 20 road signs during the exercise.
The litter pick was worthwhile although it will not solve the ongoing problem. CIB will no doubt organise further sessions in the future but thanks should go to the unfailing efforts of public spirited parishioners who routinely pick up litter as they walk the lanes. Without their contribution, the situation would be far worse.