Twelve of the island’s churches along with the Old Grammar School in Castletown were decked out in glorious bloom for this year’s Isle of Man Flower Festival. We paid a visit to St Peter’s Church in Cregneash to meet some of the flower arrangers who took part.

The Isle of Man Flower Festival is one of the highlights of the island’s summer calendar. Held in the first week of July each year it offers the chance to visit local churches and other community buildings which have been decorated with seasonal floral arrangements.

Venues taking part this year included St German’s Cathedral in Peel, The Abbey Church Ballasalla and Ballaugh Old Church. The festival also in involves the Isle of Man Community Foundation and is sponsored by Culture Vannin. The theme for this year’s Flower Festival was ’Charity is...’

St Peter’s, in the village of Cregneash, is a little gem of church with strong links to the island’s heritage. A team of 12 flower arrangers had decorated the church for the festival and all said that they were part of the regular congregation at this ’lovely friendly church’.

Organiser Harry Dawson explained: ’Many of the arrangers have interpreted charity in the old-fashioned meaning of the word as "love".’

Audrey and David Hibbert gave a perfect illustration of the theme: they had constructed a little stone cottage with a path to the door and a sign outside saying ’Welcome! Have a cuppa’.

Audrey told us: ’David made a wooden frame which we filled with cement and I stuck the pebbles on for the walls: the window frames are made of matchsticks.’

David added that when he made the first cast it broke but they put what was left of it together to resemble a tholtan with an ivy plant growing over it. The cottage also has its own little garden with ducks, toadstools and an sheepdog.

Voirrey Kinley and Olive Dawson who dressed another window had put together a stunning display in pink and white using hydrangeas from Voirrey’s garden.

Christine Deakin and Margaret Kelly used orange roses for their display, mixing them with buddleia for a striking show

All the displays were backlit by light coming through the stained glass windows which illustrate Manx rural life and its fishing and agricultural heritage.

Summing up this year’s charity and love theme, Barbara Qualtrough, who was responsible for the beautiful arrangement of flowers in the font, said: ’This is love because I do love doing flowers.’