A TEACUP and saucer claimed to have been awarded to Henry Oakes at Gooseberry Goostrey Show in 1903 have been returned to the village.

The china pieces have been donated to Goostrey Parish Archive to add to its growing collection of records, photographs and artefacts from down the centuries.

Highly decorated with a floral pattern, the cup and matching saucer were spotted in an auction by a friend of champion gooseberry grower Doug Carter who told him to bid for it and was successful for £30.

Doug, whose father Frank Carter was a legendary grower with many of the named gooseberry varieties raised in his garden at Blackden still competing at shows, thought the parish archive would be an appropriate home for safekeeping.

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The china teacup and saucer are highly decorated with a floral pattern and dated 1903

The china teacup and saucer are highly decorated with a floral pattern and dated 1903

The china teacup and saucer are highly decorated with a floral pattern and dated 1903

But the provenance of the cup and saucer is in doubt after Martin de Kretser, the Goostrey show secretary dipped into the records for 1903.

He could find no trace of a Henry Oakes, although a family of the name is believed to live in the village at that time.

It is also a mystery as to why the decoration did not include gooseberries, but a possibility is that Henry was a non-showing member and was awarded the cup and saucer for services to the show.

However, the puzzle deepened when Martin delved further into the show's origins and produced a local newspaper cutting from its start in 1863 at the Red Lion Inn, Goostrey.

This revealed the landlady, a Mrs Foden, gave a copper tea kettle 'for the cottage growers' but there is no mention of a cup and saucer to go with it.

And now the parish archive and gooseberry show would dearly like to know what happened to the copper kettle if it survives and hopes to crack the mystery of the cup and saucer.

The show lasted for only a few years but later resumed at the inn in 1897 and has continued almost without a break since - even beating the corona pandemic last year to hold the event at the village's Crown Inn.

Archive member and veteran gooseberry grower Derek Hardacre is taking care of the cup and saucer until the collection can reopen at the village hall.

"It was obviously meant to be used by a man because it has a lip inside showing it was a moustache cup," said Derek.

"It has the name Henry Oakes 1903 inscribed in gold on the side and came from the auctioneers with a pencilled note indicating it was from Goostrey Gooseberry Show but that is all we know."

The archive is currently closed because of the coronavirus pandemic but is eager to hear stories of village life in the past and receive pictures and artefacts to include in the collection.

Chairman, Roger Burgess can be contacted on 01477 535443 or by email at roger.burgess67@icloud.com