A VISIT to Anglesey will always be a special treat, not least when it involves crossing Thomas Telford’s illustrious Menai Bridge of 1826, with the superbly picturesque strait far below. The significance of the approach is underlined by the wording of the sign on the first tower—Môn, Mam Cymru: Anglesey, Mother of Wales.
Only a few miles from this memorable scene lives Medwyn Williams, himself a kind of living monument of the best kind. He is the greatest of our show growers, a king of long carrots and immaculate cauliflowers, who was awarded an MBE in 2006. He would be entitled to live in state, but, instead, greets me in his cosy sitting room, lined with family photographs and mementoes of his brilliant career. The anticipated masterclass soon dissolves into a friendly chinwag over a marvellous pile of bara brith and Welsh cakes furnished by Medwyn’s wife, Gwenda, an inseparable part of the family enterprises over the years.
In case you wonder on what authority I sing this man’s praises, let me be clear. In 2005, Medwyn won his 10th consecutive Gold Medal at the Chelsea Flower Show, a record for a vegetable display. That show is held in May, a month known to all gardeners as the Hungry Gap, because winter stores are at an end and fresh supplies are still at the seedling stage. There is a good reason why vegetable shows are usually held in late summer. Being told that it can’t be done in May is, to a man of Medwyn’s mindset, an irresistible challenge.
Denne historien er fra March 25, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra March 25, 2020-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Save our family farms
IT Tremains to be seen whether the Government will listen to the more than 20,000 farming people who thronged Whitehall in central London on November 19 to protest against changes to inheritance tax that could destroy countless family farms, but the impact of the good-hearted, sombre crowds was immediate and positive.
A very good dog
THE Spanish Pointer (1766–68) by Stubbs, a landmark painting in that it is the artist’s first depiction of a dog, has only been exhibited once in the 250 years since it was painted.
The great astral sneeze
Aurora Borealis, linked to celestial reindeer, firefoxes and assassinations, is one of Nature's most mesmerising, if fickle displays and has made headlines this year. Harry Pearson finds out why
'What a good boy am I'
We think of them as the stuff of childhood, but nursery rhymes such as Little Jack Horner tell tales of decidedly adult carryings-on, discovers Ian Morton
Forever a chorister
The music-and way of living-of the cabaret performer Kit Hesketh-Harvey was rooted in his upbringing as a cathedral chorister, as his sister, Sarah Sands, discovered after his death
Best of British
In this collection of short (5,000-6,000-word) pen portraits, writes the author, 'I wanted to present a number of \"Great British Commanders\" as individuals; not because I am a devotee of the \"great man, or woman, school of history\", but simply because the task is interesting.' It is, and so are Michael Clarke's choices.
Old habits die hard
Once an antique dealer, always an antique dealer, even well into retirement age, as a crop of interesting sales past and future proves
It takes the biscuit
Biscuit tins, with their whimsical shapes and delightful motifs, spark nostalgic memories of grandmother's sweet tea, but they are a remarkably recent invention. Matthew Dennison pays tribute to the ingenious Victorians who devised them
It's always darkest before the dawn
After witnessing a particularly lacklustre and insipid dawn on a leaden November day, John Lewis-Stempel takes solace in the fleeting appearance of a rare black fox and a kestrel in hot pursuit of a pipistrelle bat
Tarrying in the mulberry shade
On a visit to the Gainsborough Museum in Sudbury, Suffolk, in August, I lost my husband for half an hour and began to get nervous. Fortunately, an attendant had spotted him vanishing under the cloak of the old mulberry tree in the garden.
