Goostrey Residents expected to celebrate Rose Day despite COVID

The people of Goostrey are expected to come out in force to the support the scaled down Rose Day procession that will make its way through the village on 26 June.

Because of the Covid restrictions, the usual pageant on the school field will not take place but instead, the Rose Queen Cate Clayton and Rosebud Queen Rose Worsley will be crowned in a short ceremony which will take place at 12.30pm on the grassed area off Booth Bed Lane, opposite Meadow Avenue.

The girls wearing their crowns and accompanied by their attendants will then form a small procession which will begin at 1pm and go down Main Road to the Church where the vicar Heather Buckley will say a prayer before a wreath is laid at the War Memorial.

The Rose Day committee hopes the village will support the procession, which will also include this year’s president Julia Sewell and the Silver and Gold Rose Queens who were crowned 25 and 50 years ago, and line Main Road whilst maintaining all covid restrictions, such as social distancing and mask wearing, that will still be in place on the day.

Main Road will be closed from Booth Bed Lane to the Church from 1pm until 2pm.Villagers are encouraged to decorate their gardens with banners and buntings as usual and there will again be a prize for the best garden banner. Anyone wishing to enter the banner competition should e-mail Stewart Smallwood  by Wednesday 23 June at the latest.

Following on from last year’s successful Rose Day at Home there will again be a special programme broadcast on Dane Sound Radio at 9am and repeated at 6pm on the Saturday. The usual prize draw will be taking place with a fantastic array of prizes generously donated by local businesses.

One of the successes of last year was the delivery of small cakes, on behalf of the Rose Queen to residents who were isolating because of the Covid pandemic, and so the committee has decided to repeat the exercise again this year. Although Rose Day will be curtailed, all the usual the competitions will still take place.

 

Chair of Rose Day Chris Burgess said: “Unfortunately, this year’s Rose Day will be on a far smaller scale than usual, but we are confident the people of Goostrey will come out and  safely support the Rose Queen and the Rosebud Queen.

“If all the Covid restriction had been lifted on 21 June we had a plan to invite more children to join the procession but that cannot happen now.

“We make no apologies for adopting a cautious approach with the safety of children and villagers our number one priority. However, we are confident that the people of Goostrey will make the most of it and we hope that families will organise their own at home celebrations.”