The Frank Carter Memorial Plate
 

November 2008

The plates, which will be awarded each year, will be made by the potter, John Hudson, and will record the year, the name of the grower and the name of the berry, so that every plate will be unique.  The award has been inaugurated by The Blackden Trust to celebrate the work of Frank Carter and to help ensure that his achievements are remembered. Frank, a legend among gooseberry growers, was born in Toad Hall and lived all his life in Blackden.  He developed seventeen new cultivars; all grown from seed on Blackden soil.

As a part of making public its research into the history of Blackden and the surrounding area, The Blacken Trust has also instituted the Frank Carter Memorial Archive, which will be kept in The Old Medicine House, the home of The Blackden Trust. It will contain artefacts and copies of the archives of the Cheshire Gooseberry Societies.  The collection will be open to the public.

The Trust hopes to develop a living archive by growing a specimen of each of the seventeen gooseberry cultivars developed by Frank Carter.  Some of these may be hard to find, as some of Frank’s earlier cultivars were superseded by his later ones, which are still winning shows.  The Trust is very grateful to local gooseberry growers for the promise of the donation of named trees to this commemorative collection.  These gifts will be acknowledged in the archive.

Terry Price awarded Frank Carter Memorial Plate
 

August 2008

Terry Price has been awarded the Frank Carter Memorial Plate for the heaviest Premier Berry shown at the 2008 Goostrey Gooseberry Society Show. His winning berry was a Lord Kitchener that weighed 31 pennyweights and 15 grams. The plate will be personalised and then presented to Terry in the autumn.

The Frank Carter Memorial Archive has been inaugurated by the donation of a pair of gooseberry scales. They belonged to Colin Garner, who bequeathed them to his grandson, Adam Garner. Adam has been interested in gooseberries since he was a child, when he watched his grandfather watching his berries grow. He now lives in Oxford, and gave the scales to The Blackden Trust because he feels that they belong in Cheshire, but he says that he is now left ‘penniless and without scruples.’

The Blackden Trust houses gooseberry archives
 

March 2008

We have been asked to house artefacts and archives of the Cheshire Gooseberry Societies. The collection will include a record of the prize-winning cultivars raised from seed by Frank Carter.

Frank was born in Toad Hall and lived all his married life, within quarter a mile of his birthplace, at Blackden Firs. He developed seventeen new gooseberry cultivars. All were grown from seed on Blackden soil.

John Hudson has been commissioned  to create a commemorative ceramic plate, the Frank Carter Memorial plate, to be awarded for the heaviest Premier Berry shown at Goostrey Gooseberry Society Show.  The plate will be awarded each year.

Blackden Students gain university places
 

December 2007

6^th Form students, who attended courses at Blackden in 2007 have been offered university places at the universities of their first choice.   These include the universities of Birmingham, Bristol, Liverpool, London School of Economics, Manchester, Nottingham, Oxford, University College London and York.

The students say:

Thank you so much for all your help, the courses really added an extra edge to my application and overall knowledge.

I am pleased to tell you that I received offers at all five of my choices.

Blackden Trust in Heritage Counts 2007
 

October 2007

The Blackden Trust was mentioned as a case study in Heritage Counts 2007, the annual survey on the state of England’s historic environment, published by English Heritage. In 2007 the report focused on the historic environment as a learning resource.