We are delighted to announce the winners of our 2026 Volunteer Awards, after receiving 12 nominations from County Gardens Trusts across the country.
The winners were announced at our annual Volunteer Celebration, which this year took place in Norwich. Winners were presented with their certificates and awards by our Chair of Trustees John Watkins. A very hearty congratulations to:
Sally Ingram from Sussex Gardens Trust and Gwen Miles from Buckinghamshire Gardens Trust who are this year’s joint winners.
Both Sally and Gwen make such a huge difference to their CGTs, undertaking a wide variety of tasks with Sally responsible for managing communications at Sussex GT and setting up an oral history project and Gwen running the day to day activities of Buckinghamshire GT including communications, organising the Bucks Gardeners Network and helping with strategic planning. Congratulations Gwen and Sally!
We were also pleased to present two Long Service Appreciation Awards to Joan Pateman from London Parks and Gardens and Mary ter Braak from Somerset Gardens Trust, who combined have been volunteering for 30 years and have made enormous contributions to their CGT. Mary was “absolutely delighted” to be given the award.
We also presented a Newcomer Award to Gardens Trust volunteers Irene Lucas and Sarah Luton who over the past year have helped write more than 20 articles for our new Garden History Hub.
Irene said “It is really lovely to be recognised in this way for the work I have done so far” with Sarah “absolutely blown away by the award, thank you!”.
We were especially thrilled to present our outgoing Treasurer, Lisa Watson, a very special gift to thank her for an extraordinary contribution over many years, particularly in setting up and help settle the Gardens Trust.
A huge congratulations to all of our incredibly worthy winners! Find out more about our Volunteer Award and how you can nominate someone next year by clicking here.
Having been launched for the GT’s 10th anniversary, both the Long Service and Newcomer awards will continue to be awarded in future when there are appropriate nominees – please simply make your nomination to the overall award scheme and the judging panel will assess which award is most appropriate.
