Celebratory Garden Party at Clarence House

Our Patron HRH The Prince of Wales joined beneficiaries, supporters and our ambassadors Alex James and JB Gill for a special celebration of the work of The Prince’s Countryside Fund. A colourful display of some of the Fund’s projects welcomed guests and provided an opportunity to find out more about how our grant programme and projects are helping to improve the lives of people who live and work in the countryside.

HRH met with guests including Lewis Steer who shared how his new Dartmoor sheep enterprise was growing from strength to strength with thanks to the use of a Land Rover Discovery Sport for a year as one of our bursary recipients. Guests were able to sample and learn more about making charcuterie from Parsonage Farm and hear how our funding had helped a rural community in Staffordshire to bring vital services back to their community.

Liz Morgan, Deputy Chair of Marchington Community Shop, said, “Receiving The Prince’s Countryside Fund grant has made a huge difference to the shop’s ability to modernise to better serve its customers’ needs in the two villages of Marchington and the Woodlands. We have been able to provide a broader range, including delicatessen and savoury products from small food producers, and make our access easier for all our customers. We are proud to use local suppliers for dairy, meat, bread, plants and honey, so that we support the local Staffordshire and Derbyshire producers. It was a real privilege for us to meet His Royal Highness at Clarence House and share with him our enthusiasm about the benefits of local shopping and local products in rural areas such as ours.”

Farmers from the Hailsham group of The Prince’s Farm Resilience Programme also discussed with HRH how the programme had helped their businesses and opened their eyes to the opportunity of ways to collaborate together in the future.

The event concluded with a few words of thanks to our generous supporters and beneficiaries from our chairman Lord Curry of Kirkharle.