Luxurious ‘potting shed’ for primary school

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Supporting the local school

Another lovely gesture by Otter Garden Centres in Ottery St Mary, with the donation of a ‘potting shed’ to local school, Ottery Primary.

The idea grew from discussions held during Otter’s 60 Good Deeds campaign, celebrating the company’s 60th anniversary in 2024. Otter first helped the school by replacing the wood on raised beds, providing a new pond liner, and installing a roof for the forest school firepit area, making outdoor learning possible all year round.

Otter MD Jacqui Taylor, a former pupil of the school, then offered something rather special – a dedicated indoor space – a rather grand potting shed. It’s a high-quality Malvern building, with large windows to let in plenty of light and double doors leading to a veranda. It’s also heated, meaning children can sow seeds and pot up vegetables on cold days, and have a chance to warm up between gardening sessions.

Jacqui is genuinely passionate about helping young people to enjoy activities that involve planting, growing and getting muddy!

I went along to take some PR photos of the ‘handover’ and chat to Assistant Headteacher Dan Western about what the donation meant to the school. “We’re so grateful to Otter Garden Centres and Jacqui for their generous support. The potting shed and the other improvements will help us weave nature, planting and growing into the curriculum, giving our young students a real appreciation of the world around them.”

The photography session reminded me (once again) of the old adage, never work with animals or children, as one young lad was looking everywhere except at the camera. Classic.

Primary School students enjoy new gardening adventures thanks to Otter Garden Centres | The Exeter Daily

Ottery pupils dig into learning thanks to generous gift from garden centre | Devon Live

Well done to Jacqui and the team for your continuing generosity to the local community.

New entrance

I also created some PR around the new entrance and layout to the Ottery Garden Centre, which now has a much more appealing and logical layout for customers.

Otter Garden Centres, Ottery St Mary, new building opened | Sidmouth Herald

Fresh look and feel inside legendary Devon garden centre | Devon Live

Cutting the ribbon for a new look in Otter shopping | The Exeter Daily

Local PR

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I’ve had a bit of a lull on the local news stories recently, to the extent that when I sent out a press release the journalist immediately emailed back that he’d thought I was either dead or had left the country. Thanks Lewis!

So I’ve enjoyed having two fresh topics to write about, one for Otter Garden Centres, the other for Chilcott Auctioneers.

Otter’s was about a lovely gesture they made to revitalise the flower beds at the local community hospital in Ottery St Mary, in a response to a request from nursing staff. Brothers Kevin and Neil from OGC (centre in the pic) went along to do the work – I’ve known them both for many years, they are always happy to help out! They removed dead plants and brambles, replacing them with cottage garden plants chosen to make the borders a riot of colour and life, such as lavenders, verbenas, dahlias, salvias and gaillardia.

Interesting from my pov I had my first ever appointment at the hospital a month or so ago. It was all very impressive, and I’m so glad the hospital wasn’t closed – which it was under threat of not so long ago.

Read more HERE.

The other was for Chilcotts Auctioneers, another long-term client. I love writing for them, as there is always something interesting to research. For this, I looked into the life of Captain John Campbell OBE, a naval hero who had gathered a really fascinating collection of artwork together over many decades (his first purchase in 1962). Works by artists such as Edward Seago and Marcel Dyf plus bronze sculptures of African wildlife and vintage/contemporary glass. Besides the artwork, Campbell himself was a fascinating individual to look into; he became a specialist hydrographic surveyor, travelling to places like Antarctica. In the Falklands war he oversaw the conversion of a survey vessel into a hospital ship to take injured soldiers to Ecuador.

More on this story HERE. As well as local press, the story has featured in Antiques Trade Gazette, and I hope will be picked up elsewhere, watch this space!

East Devon PR – THAT Chinese vase

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What fun I had recently on my home turf, with East Devon PR for clients, Chilcotts. They really do have the best stories and I genuinely love getting involved in the research as we bring the threads of history together.

This time it was one of those chance finds that ends up being worth rather a lot of money. In this case, a Chinese vase, called a ‘moonflask’. Auctioneer and valuer Duncan Chilcott knew he had something extra special when he saw the object – and how right could he be? The rare puce-enamelled blue and white dragon bianhu moonflask sold for just under £500,000 in an auction held in Hong Kong.

Well, apart from racking my brains to remember if I had any Chinese vases in my own home (negative), I wrote up the story and sent it out to the usual suspects. Roger Malone at the Western Morning News got first dibs, he’s a great supporter of Chilcotts, as is Mike Byrne at the Echo. Then things went a little wild. Requests from South West news agencies came in and suddenly there was the news about the vase popped up on many popular online news sites, the BBC, Mirror, Mail and so on and so forth.

Of course, once in the mainstream press, the story morphed into something other than the truth, as it does. Suddenly, the vendor became a man from Devon who found a dusty old vase in the rattic, with much reference made to an episode of Only Fools and Horses.

Daily Mirror

“The man, who has not been named, had no idea of the value of his Chinese antique when he took it to be valued at an auction house.

But just like in the famous Only Fools and Horses episode, he was stunned to discover the family heirloom that had collected dust for decades was worth a fortune.”

This caused a fair amount of hilarity among those who knew the facts. But there was no damage, and Chilcotts was mentioned in a positive light in every case  – what a result!

So what’s the next story going to be, I wonder? I can’t wait!