BARNOLDSWICK'S bid to be dubbed best blooming town in Britain, launched during National Gardening Week, included a novel action of spreading cemetery spoil in a town centre bed.

Awarded the accolade of being the best town in the North West last year, Barnoldswick is now representing the region in the national finals of the RHS Britain in Bloom event.

The local bloom group is sowing the seeds of gaining another gold medal in the prestigious initiative and hoping to scoop the nation’s ‘best town’ title this summer.

“We’re getting tremendous support from residents and businesses in our bid to be the best in Britain,” said David Whipp, one of the founder members of Barnoldswick in Bloom. “Everyone involved with the bloom group is volunteering their time to help Barnoldswick bloom and it’s great to see new people joining in and helping with the effort.

“The bloom group has regular organised activity days. This time round, we’ve been concentrating on the planted areas along Fernlea Avenue.

“To celebrate National Gardening Week, volunteers have been busy planting new plants in the beds at the War Memorial and Centenary Gardens. We’ve also mulched up the newly planted ‘wild-harvest’ tree planting area by the Skipton bus shelter.

“A novel action was spreading cemetery spoil in what’s to become our new wildflower meadow by the Station Road bus stop. The spoil is the sub-soil from digging new graves in cemeteries and is supposed to be good for sowing wildflowers. We’ll be watching carefully to see how successful this is.”

* Barnoldswick has won Gold Medals at regional level every year since the bloom team first entered the Britain in Bloom initiative in 2011 and also won a Gold Medal in the national finals in 2015.

The town has also scooped awards for Best Newcomer, Best Display in a Public Place, Best New Landscaping and Best Town in the North West.