Chorley Little Theatre are celebrating after winning a Silver Gilt Medal for their show garden at Southport Flower Show.

It is the first time the Society have entered the competition there, so the volunteers are delighted to do so well.

Southport Flower Show celebrates its 90th anniversary this year with the theme ‘garden party’ so the theatre created a display based around their upcoming play, Woman In Mind.

Written by Alan Ayckbourn, the comic play is about Susan, who leads a dull mundane life until she bangs her head in her garden.

Suddenly she is in a vibrant fantasy world, with an exciting family and living on the grounds of a stately home.

The theatre’s garden is designed to show both states of mind, and was positioned at Southport to have big houses on the horizon behind it.

Building it involved battling the heavy rain and wind, but it was ready for judging on Wednesday before the flower show opened on Thursday.

Designed by Estelle Bryers, the garden was built by the Chorley Amateur Dramatic & Operatic Society stage crew at Chorley Little Theatre with plants supplied by Wonderwall direct.

Estelle said: “I’ve been coming to Southport Flower Show all my life so it’s a thrill to represent the theatre here this year.

“I have designed the garden using theatrical tricks such as forced perspective and extreme sightlines, and if you go round the back you’ll see the stage managers door and a props store.

Just like a theatre production it’s been assembled for showing on certain dates at Chorley and Southport flower shows but can be easily taken apart and re-used in the future.”

Parts of the garden will be used in the production of Woman In Mind itself, which is currently rehearsing.