The beautiful gardens at Fonthill were the setting for a fantastic garden party organised by Diane and Mary with a whole crowd of family and friends who volunteered to help, together with sponsorship for the event from local firms Shearwell Data, Velcourt and Maycreation. The generosity of Lord Margadale and his staff in opening the gardens in aid of Secondary1st allowed crowds of people to visit the estate and enjoy an afternoon of entertainment with a raffle offering superb prizes, a variety of refreshments, a tombola and lots of artisan stalls in these glorious surroundings. The audience listened to music from the Gillingham School String Quartet, Katie McKenna and her cello, and the guitar and cello of Furlined. They watched a scene from “The Importance of Being Earnest” performed by Helena Payne and Marie Fortune of the Pleasuredome Theatre Company, before a talk from the horticulturalist and gardening journalist Alys Fowler. Gerald Dickens performed the moving “Doctor Marigold”, written by his great-great-grandfather Charles Dickens; this was followed by an aria from Helena Payne and music from the Clayesmore School Pipe Band before the raffle was drawn to find the winners of all the prizes which had been so generously donated. The afternoon ended with music from Joel and Theo. Secondary1st is extremely grateful to Lord Margadale and to the organisers, volunteers, stall holders and performers who all gave their time and talent to make the Fonthill Garden Party such a success. For many more photos go to Instagram and look for fonthillgardenparty or #fonthillgardenparty.
