Thriplow Daffodil Weekend honours Speaker Betty Boothroyd

About 12,000 visitors are expected to flock to "a super-sized village fete" celebrating the humble daffodil.

Some 500,000 blooms are on show at the Thriplow Daffodil Weekend and Country Fair, near Cambridge.

One of the highlights is a flower called Madam Speaker - named in honour of former House of Commons speaker Baroness Betty Boothroyd, who made Thriplow her home.

About 40 coachloads of visitors are expected this Saturday and Sunday.

"It's an exercise in precision parking in a paved area owned by a farmer," said festival chairman Paul Earnshaw.

He said one visitor was even coming from Australia - he is a distant relative of the old village blacksmith and wanted to see where his ancestor worked.

The half a million daffodil bulbs have been planted around the village over the years and a further 50,000 were planted this year.

"We've now completed a ring all around the village so that when people come, they can walk a circuit of the village and they can never not see a daffodil," Mr Earnshaw said.

Although daffodils began showing their heads in early February, he said: "We never have a worry about daffodils, because we plan all the different varieties so that we know we will have at least one variety out.

"There are more than 25,000 types of daffodil; I think it's the most highly hybridised flower in the world."

A first for this year's festival is a special showing of the Madam Speaker variety.

The festival organisers managed to acquire what they believe were the last 30 bulbs available from the supplier and nurture them in honour of Baroness Boothroyd, the first female Speaker of the lower house in Parliament.

Born in Dewsbury in West Yorkshire, and an MP for West Bromwich West, she made Thriplow her home, and her funeral took place there in March last year, after she died at the age of 93.

"There are only 350 people living in this village and everyone knew her just as Betty," said Mr Earnshaw.

Betty's bulbs have been carefully nurtured and are currently being moved to a location in the village so that visitors can appreciate them.

In the future, Mr Earnshaw said they hoped to be able to grow more and create a daffodil display in her honour.

"She was very much loved in this village," he added.

The event raises funds for local charities.

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