News
A Successful Buxton Flowerpot Trail 2019
We did it! A successful spring and summer of flowerpot people-making workshops and a successful town trail. Phew! All thanks to the lovely people of the town (and further afield) who got involved in this slightly silly creative project.
With the support of a Derbyshire County Council Action Grant, we ran workshops during May and June at the Buxton Spring Fair, The Green Man Gallery, Serpentine Community Farm, Buxton Rotary Club Summer Fair, Haddon Hall Care Home, Fairfield’s AgeUK group and helped those with designs who came along to our other summer workshops to pick up pots.
We estimate a total of 120 people engaged with the workshops and many others made flowerpot people at home, using old pots in their sheds and garages. The re-purposing of materials is a strong reason to do this project. And the fact that the flowerpot people look really funny!

We then set about creating the flowerpot trail. Those wanting to be included simply submitted their address by the deadline – we ended up with 28 locations; not bad for a first trail.
Maps were kindly sold (for a printing cost-covering £1) at the Buxton Visitor Centre in The Pump Room and at the Green Man Gallery.

The Buxton Town Team‘s Buxton in Bloom Best Flowerpot Person Competition was judged in August, unfortunately after some pretty strong storms, but we’re told most survived! Ours needed sorting out a few times after being blown over.
To see photos of the workshops and some of the flowerpot people created this summer, see our project page here.
Feedback from the workshops and trail included the following comments:
- “loved spotting the flowerpots and was very impressed with the sculpture outside the Green Man”. (That was ours! Thanks very much!)
- “it added to the fun of the summer and was good that it went on for such a long time”
- it brought “pockets of colour around the town”.
We also received some great suggestions for next year which we hope to deliver.
So get designing ready for the Buxton Flowerpot Trail 2020 and watch our news blog for details.