AT THE beginning of May 2021, three sisters had an idea; to make Tintagel beautiful.

Raine Haire and her siblings Lynne Tansey and Caz Garrett had a vision, and decided to call their group ‘Tintagel Sow Beautiful’, before putting it to the village and asking what their thoughts were on the idea. The response was overwhelmingly positive, so a gardening club was set up which is held in the Tintagel Social Hall.

Raine said: “We then approached our parish council to ask permission and put forward our ideas which they not only agreed but borrowed us all the hanging baskets; we then had fliers made and distributed around the village. We then approached all the pubs, shops and cafés to ask them to sponsor a basket which the majority of them did.

“We then hired a cherry picker to put the hanging baskets in place and a gentleman known has ‘Handy Andy’ would water them every two days.”

Raine continued: “We received donations from our parish council, English Heritage and also from the people of our village; in total we have raised £1,668.

“We then had borders dug in front of our two Tintagel signs and Katy Deithrick also organised a clean up around the visitors centre. She got some of the children from our village to help dig and plant plants.

“We have also tidied up around our Social Hall and planted new plants, and there also will be a raised bed made at the back of the hall so they can plant herbs to use in their kitchen. Someone kindly took the bench next to one of our Tintagel signs, cleaned it up and then preserved it.

“Also Mr and Mrs Musgrove made a seed donation box and Beth Bolton made and designed perspex that goes on the door. This is placed out our social hall.

“We had some ladies from our group make craft objects to sell on the stall we had in the village square.”

Going forward, the group have plenty of plans.

Raine added: “We have many visions for our village including to plant wild flowers along the grass verges coming into Tintagel, create a sensory communal garden and install some street art if and when permitted.

“We have members applying for grants and donations from county council etcetera. When we put our idea forward, we truly did not expect the response we had. This is a good way to not only make our village beautiful but it also brings our community together plus helps our environment.”

The next event is today (November 17) at the Social Hall starting at 7.30pm.

For further information, email Raine at [email protected]