Ella Wilford has been chosen as this year’s Goostrey Rose Queen and will be crowned at the annual Rose Day event on Saturday 24 June.
Ella,12, who attends Holmes Chapel Comprehensive School, has taken part in Rose Day every year since she was a little girl has always wanted to be the Rose Queen.
As she explained: “I have been in every Rose Day that I could and I have enjoyed them all. I am really looking forward to the day and representing Goostrey at the other Rose Day events around the area.”
Ella’s two attendants on the big day will be Eleanor Stutfield, aged 12, who attends The Grange School, and Nancy Napier, 13 from Knutsford, who is a pupil at Kings School in Macclesfield.
The 2023 Rose Bud Queen will be Phoebe Sharman who will be accompanied by her lady in waiting, Isabelle Spencer. There will be six Rose Bud Queen attendants: Jessica Beardsworth; Elora Clifford; Scarlett Devey; Ruby Hemming; Hannah Pearson and Bronte Rushton.
On the same day that the Rose Queen was chosen by an independent panel of judges, more than 30 children attended the infant party in the Village Hall. Many parents donated prizes for the tombola on Rose Day and enjoyed the refreshments at the pop-up café that were donated by the Co-op and members of the committee.
In the evening more than 100 villagers packed the village hall for a quiz that coincided with the close of an on-line promise auction which raised £3,000 for both Goostrey Rose Festival and to support the visit of eight children and two teachers from the Elizabethfontein school in the Western Cape, South Africa.
This will be the sixth time since 2004 that pupils from the school have visited Goostrey to take part in the annual Rose Day celebrations.
The children, who will be staying with families in Goostrey, will also be taking part in lessons at Goostrey school and demonstrating crafts, sharing South African playground games and dancing. The school has won numerous dancing competitions throughout the Western Cape and the children will be performing at Rose Day on Saturday 24 June.
The rural Elizabethfontein School, which is a three-and-a-half-hour drive North of Cape Town, has 270 children most of whom board on weekly basis in two huge dormitories.
Chair of the Rose Day committee Christina Burgess said: “Yet again the people of Goostrey have demonstrated how much they appreciate Rose Day by supporting the party, the quiz and the auction in such a big way.
“It is a very special occasion for the village and so we are delighted that, yet again, there are so many young girls who want to continue the tradition. I am sure Ella and Phoebe, and all their attendants, will have a day they will remember for a very long time.”