A gardens open event is being held in the tiny moorland village of Sheepstor over the weekend to raise funds for the village hall.

Nine gardens as well as St Leonard’s Church and its wildflower and wildlife friendly churchyard will be open for viewing on Saturday and Sunday, May 10 and 11 from 10.30am to 4.30pm.

Entry is by map only, which can be purchased for £5 per person (under 16s free) from the village hall in the centre of Sheepstor on the day.

Free car parking will be signposted, with directions to the village hall, and dogs on leads are welcome in most open gardens as well as the hall.

A quiz based on interesting features in each garden will be provided for the children to keep them entertained whilst their elders explore the gardens.

Patrick Drennan, chair and open gardens lead for Sheepstor Village Hall committee, said: “The individual gardens are very varied as one might expect, and range from the ‘recovering from building work’ to the ‘more established’, but all are work in progress.

“The individual gardeners will be on hand to answer any queries, admit mistakes and pitfalls encountered along the way, and listen to your own kernels of wisdom.

“ A new feature this year is a bluebell wood walk through the grounds of Burrator House, of White Rajahs of Sarawak fame, to Yeo House on the parish boundary.

“Also new is Blooming Well CIC’s therapeutic horticulture programme, for people living with/recovering from cancer, and their development of a community garden in the Bull Ring Field.”

He added: “Non ‘garden open’ volunteers will be in the village hall to tempt everyone with refreshments, ploughman’s lunches and cream teas, which have been exceptionally well received and reviewed in former years.

“Some gardens may even have plants for sale, although bear in mind that the NSPCC is holding a plant sale on the Saturday in St Paul’s in Yelverton so you may need to have enough funds for both!”

He added that the village hall committee treasurer has invested in a card reader “so that the cashless society devotees can have no excuse not to transfer some of their assets to the village hall funds”.

“The village hall is owned and maintained entirely by all householders in Sheepstor parish with no regular funds from outside sources, so please support us and you will have a lovely day out,” added Patrick.

“In fact your map entry is valid for both days so you can afford to spend more time wandering round some and come back the following days to visit the remainder, suitably fortified by yet more refreshments and food!”

The gardens open event was first dreamed up in 2006 as a much-needed fundraiser to replenish village hall coffers. The first one went ahead in 2007, but it took three years and some persuasion of doubters to establish it as a biennial event from 2010 onwards, until covid sadly intervened. It is now, happily, back.