Secret Gardens, Sunday May 12th, 2024

Secret Gardens, Sunday, May 12th, 2024

Advance (discounted) Tickets, for £8.00, now available until midnight May, 11th

Accompanied Children under 16  are free

Click here to book your e-ticket which can be exchanged on the day for a fully illustrated programme and ticket for entry to gardens.  

From April 10th, you can also buy Advance Tickets in person from: branches of Brennan Ayre O’Neill, Home Bird in Heswall. Also at Luna, The Drawing Room, and Oxton Boutique all in Oxton Village Centre.

All the usual Attractions

A selection of wonderful gardens – some old, some new, some with their own artists and performers.
Entertainments, kids’ activities, the Friends of the Arno Plant Stall and street food in the village centre
Refreshments, the Gala Raffle, music and local artists in Mount Pleasant and the HUB (Prenton Prep)

Sorry, no dogs (except assistance dogs) in gardens.

Advance ticket sales closes at midnight on May 11th

Secret Gardens, May, 2023.

Another bumper year for Secret Gardens 2023.

We sold about 4,000 tickets for over £35,000. The Toosey family organised the raffle and the refreshments at Prenton Pep and took in over £5,000. Donations, Sponsorship, Merchandise and fees from stall-holders brought in nearly £8,000. The total income was about £48,000. The Plant Stall made about £1,100 for the Friends of the Arno. The Woodcraft Folk got over £600 for providing kids’ entertainment.

Putting on Secret Gardens safely and efficiently is a surprisingly expensive affair. The total cost was nearly £12,000.

This leaves the magnificent sum of about £36,000 to share between the Oxton Society and our partner charities – the Terral Morgan Memorial Fund, Sundowns and the Birkenhead Youth Club, who get about £25,000 between them. The Oxton Society gets nearly £11,000 which supplements our modest membership fees and helps to pay for our community and conservation work, including Xmas Lights, Hanging Baskets, Newsletters, History work, including Blue Plaques and our admin costs.

Special thanks go to our joint coordinators, Kirsty Cotton and Lisa Stafford and all those who manage different aspects of the day. Also, to Monica Toosey, who is retiring from leading the refreshments team after many years, and Kate Wyness, retiring from overseeing the artisan stalls.

Finally, a huge thank-you to our very special garden owners who provide the core attraction for a great day out.

Secret Gardens 2022 breaks all records

This year’s Secret Gardens was a bumper year for all involved – the organisers (Kirsty and Lisa), the volunteers, the sponsors, local businesses, the entertainers, Artists, Friends of the Arno (plant stall) and the street food stalls. Prenton Prep once again transformed their grounds into a garden party – the Hub. 4,100 people bought tickets and many others just joined in the general festivities. And none of this would matter without our wonderful owners who prepared and opened up their beautiful gardens. After a two-year hiatus, Secret Gardens came back with a bang to break all records.

Great weather and pent-up demand resulted in ticket sales of about £36,500. The raffle and the refreshments at Prenton Prep, organised by the Toosey family, brought in over £5,000. Together with rental for the stalls and other donations the event made about £45,000.

Expenses came to about £6,000, including the road closure (£1,700) toilets, buses, St John’s (£1,500). This left about £39,000 for distribution between the four charities – Stick and Step, the Woodcraft Folk, the Shaftesbury Youth Club and, of course, the Oxton Society. After 2 year’s reduced income from the Gardens, this means that we now have the funds to continue our activities (Xmas Lights, Hanging Baskets, Blue Plaques, etc) and to consider how we can increase our work on conservation within Oxton.