Well! What an amazing day it was that Sunday, and even the weather behaved itself. People in the village had worked incredibly hard to make it a memorable 50th Anniversary weekend. There was a Choral Concert on the Saturday and Open Gardens on the Sunday. The money raised beat previous records but in spite of what most of the village thought, the record number of visitors still remains for 1984 at 1,436, but we certainly were close. From the sale of programmes, we know that we welcomed 1,305 visitors and with the additional competition winners and complimentary programmes or sponsors we were certainly very busy. The refreshment venues certainly thought there were a record number of visitors by the snaking queues and on the day, they took the staggering amount of £4,610.50!!

The final amount raised was £14,843 and for that we must thank all our visitors. £4,453 of this was shared with Thrive our chosen charity for 2017.

A huge „THANK YOU‟ must go to the OGD 50 committee, the commemorative window group, concert organisers, the village logistic team, the car park organisers and refreshment teams. Also all those who made cakes, provided produce, arranged flower and those who potted up and cared for plants to be sold on the day. Special thanks to the Belchamp Morris side, Hadleigh Choral Society the Raffle sponsors AND for the fabulous Spitfire display! What an incredible sight and sound, which will live long in our memories.

The final thank you must go to Chelsworth and all those who opened their beautiful gardens allowing us to be invaded for the day, without this Open Gardens could never take place. Hopefully we will continue to host such a special event for another 50 years.