The Oxo Centenary celebration weekend in Hawkhurst over the 24th/25th July was a fantastic success. If you would like to read more about Hawkhurst's link with Oxo, please click here.

 

On Saturday 24th, around 2000 people visited Saint Ronan’s School, originally the home of the Gunther family who were responsible for the creation of the OXO cube. Visitors came to see the house, the exhibition of OXO memorabilia and walk the local woods and farm land. Many visitors also visited Sandhurst Vineyards to see the hops and vineyards there.

 

To view pictures from the weekend, please click here

 

To view press aricles for the weekend, please click on the relevant name. These links will open a pdf in a new window; you may need to right click each image and rotate it to read it:

 

 

 

TV and celebrity chef Richard Phillips of Thackerays and Chapel Down fame designed a four course meal for the evening gala dinner; 95% of the ingredients came from local producers. “We cannot thank him enough for so freely giving us his time” said Bruce Cova Chair of the Hawkhurst Community Partnership, organisers of the event.

 

In true TV chef style Richard demonstrated the preparation, cooking and presentation of the meal. His kitchen, a trailer loaned by the NFU was kitted out by Martins of Hawkhurst. The presentation was watched in awe by dinner guests as they supped Carr Taylor’s locally produced sparkling wine and realised, some for the first time, that their meal this was to be cooked by the schools day to day catering team.

 

The guests, who included three grandchildren of the original Gunther family and ex Directors of OXO, gave school chef Laura Boynton and her team a standing ovation at the end of the meal which was served in the school’s amazing ballroom..

 

As one guest commented “We ate at the Dorchester last week and this was infinitely better”. If there was a Michelin star for schools Laura and her team from the school contract caterers Holroyd Howe, would have won it for St Ronan’s on Saturday night.

 

Mr Cova commented “One can only describe the event as spectacular. The staff were magnificent. They were set an amazing challenge and not only rose to it but beat all expectations. During planning I had challenged them to not only produce a meal as good as Richard’s but to better it. The standing ovation said it all. A big thank you also goes to the many sponsors of the event who made the whole weekend possible.”

 

On Sunday 25th, ‘The Market on the Moor’ received over 2500 visitors and trade was so brisk that many traders had to send back for additional produce within hours of opening. Queues to the ice cream stand and the two local butchers, one spit roasting beef and the other burgers and sausages, never diminished. An unfortunate consequence of the brisk trade was stalls selling out of produce. 4 local producer stalls had sold out by lunchtime despite bringing 3 times their normal stock!

 

The cookery demonstrations given by The Royal Oak & The Great House from Hawkhurst plus Eurasia & The White Horse from Hurst Green were extremely well received by the crowds.

 

Summarising the event, Bruce Cova said “This was a huge success for Hawkhurst by any standard. We had 4500 people visit us over the two days, we catered for many of these on the two days and provided a magnificent dinner for 120 on Saturday evening. The fact that I have not received one complaint only praise and thanks to all those involved for the organisation and that visitors, dinners and traders have all asked for us to do it again just speaks for itself.”

 

The Hawkhurst Community Partnership would like to especially thank our sponsors for the event for their assistance and kind donations:

 

St Ronan's School (Hawkhurst)

Holroyd Howe Caterers

Park Farm Butchers (Hawkhurst)

Carr-Taylor Vineyards (Westfield)

The National Farmers Union (NFU)

Martins of Hawkhurst (Hawkhurst)

Jubilee Hire (Hawkhurst)

Lindsay Barrow Florists (Hawkhurst)

The Traditional Cheese Dairy (Stonegate)

The Weald Smokery (Flimwell)