“People came from all around. I remember all these people, with their children walking down from Stanton Drew, Chew Magna, Harptree, Blagdon. We would meet friends we hadn’t seen for 12 months and didn’t miss a year in 30 years! We would all tidy our gardens because we knew people would be walking past.”

“Before the lake there were more farming people all over the valley and they all came. Many hadn’t seen each other all year. It was the event of the year .. it was like Christmas.”

“The farmers would come in their ‘best’ to look at the fruit and the veg. They would bring their veg from all over the valley - it was heaving! It was absolutely ‘choc-a-bloc’!”

“Many farm workers took part in the veg competitions, and there were so many of them - it was very competitive and (yet) there was a lot of camaraderie.”

“It was a good place to catch up on the gossip!”

“People would have to apply for entry beforehand so they all went to Colin Salway’s house. On the night before the Harvest Home (there) it was chaos!”

“Everybody was a good gardener in those days.”