Club Outings - Thriplow Daffodils

The Daffodil Festival at Thriplow

This year, the committee decided to try out adding some club outings using Skinner's coach company, which is local to us in Oxted.  Although we arrange outings using our own transport, there are some members who have expressed interest in using a coach, especially for longer distances.  Since coaches are expensive, we felt that using Skinner's pre-organised services might be a good idea, allowing members to book through our club so that a small group could be arranged and members would know some of the other people on the outing.

Our first outing was to Thriplow, in South Cambridgeshire, very close to Duxford.  Thriplow has an annual Daffodil Festival, which has grown in attendance and scale over the years; in 2015, this was the 47th festival.  It was held on the 21st and 22nd of March, and next year will be on the 16th and 17th of April.  More details may be found at thriplowdaffodils.org.uk.  Despite the cool damp winter, with late Daffodils, there were still plenty to be seen as evidenced by the photo at the start of the article.  The Festival is supported by the whole community, allowing the village to be closed to most traffic for the weekend, making the walk around pleasant and safe.

Making a coffin apparently requires a BBC test card suit.
Who knew?

There were also a number of other attractions taking place at the Festival, from singing in the Church, to plant stalls, a food festival, and a craft market.  Features of the latter included a local craftsman specialising in handmade wicker coffins, demonstrated while wearing a suit made from BBC test card fabric ...

There were also a couple of local gardens open, one of which contained the rather large topiary in the picture below...

For a first outing, a reasonable number of members went on the trip (so much easier to park when a driver has to do it for you!), and enjoyed themselves on what was a rather cold but interesting day.  Our thanks must go to Carol Marshall, who organised the trips and liased with Skinners on our behalf.

The Village of Thriplow - a map of the event

Large topiary - probably a Dachshund?