Actor Geoffrey Palmer joined more than four hundred people on Sunday 28th June, when one of the most beautiful gardens in Buckinghamshire, Bledlow Manor, near Princes Risborough, was open to the public in aid of Abbeyfield’s Leonard Pulham Nursing Home in Halton, Aylesbury. The day was a great success raising over £4,500.
Apart from the wonderful garden there were also fifteen vintage cars from the Rolls Royce Enthusiasts Club on display, lots of stalls selling everything from plants to jewellery to Italian food products and local artists with their easels set up around the grounds, painting and selling their work.
A highlight of the day for Alexandra and Sophie Dunlop, aged 7 and 5, was when Sophie’s winning raffle ticket entitled her to a ride in a 1927 20 hp Rolls Royce. She chose her sister to accompany her much to her delight.
Geoffrey Palmer, who is a Patron of the Abbeyfield Society said, “I am very happy to be here today and to support this event in aid of Abbeyfield. My mother was a resident at Leonard Pulham and I will always be grateful for the care she received”.
The garden opening at Bledlow Manor was by kind permission of former Foreign Secretary, Lord Carrington. The late Lady Carrington, as President of the Buckinghamshire Abbeyfield Society, raised more than £850,000 for the building of the Leonard Pulham Nursing Home, which was opened in 1983 by the then Prime Minister, Mrs Margaret Thatcher, now Lady Thatcher.