The History of Rayleigh Horticultural Society

In 1990, one of our Vice-Presidents, the late Wally Raw, was asked to write a history of Rayleigh Horticultural Society for the 1991 Year Book, for what was then thought to be our 50th Anniversary.

However, since then, many items have been passed on to the Society and it appears that RHS is much older than we thought.

There are entries in school log books referring to shows held at the school in 1932/33, and then, more recently, we were given a Schedule for Rayleigh & District Horticultural Society for the 8th Annual Exhibition in the summer of 1909!

So, the gardeners of Rayleigh have been exhibiting their vegetables, fruit and flowers for well over 100 years!

Since 1941, our shows were held at various venues, including Crown Hall, (now Crown Heights flats in Crown Hill), and in a marquee in King George's Playing Field, (when our summer show used to be part of the Rayleigh Town Show). Our 3 annual shows which are so well supported now, need the much larger venue of the Mill Hall.