Lilac Fair 2024: a record for the cordial stall
The 114th Lilac Fair on 18 and 19 May was one of the busiest we can remember, helped by two dry days and the lilacs on Church Walk flowering exactly on time.
The cordial committee made 1,512 bottles of lilac-and-gooseberry cordial this year, the most since the stall began in 1953, and sold every one of them. The flowers were picked by volunteers on the Tuesday and Wednesday before the fair, from the churchyard trees and the gardens of people who offered theirs, and the gooseberries were bottled last July.
The procession left the museum at 14.00 on Saturday and laid the lilac wreath at the statue at 14.20. The wreath was made, as it has been since 1971, by the flower guild of St Laurence’s.
We estimate attendance over the weekend at about 9,400. Ninety-six stallholders took part, and the fair made a surplus for the museum of £7,880.