TRIBUTES have been paid to a gardener who has spent a lifetime inspiring others.
John Herridge, who was born in 1930, was one of Wokingham Town Council’s
longest-standing allotment gardeners whose working life and his leisure time revolved around horticulture.
The town council said that John’s gardening life began when he was a youngster, helping his father at his plot at St Paul’s Gate.
From there he took on his own very large plot at Latimer Road which he tended to until very recently.
He combined love for growing with hard work and diligence, and the strength of his back outdid many much younger men.
John’s family are steeped in the town’s history and are Wokingham through and through.
One of his forebears was as a gas lamp lighter around the town’s railway station and John was born in Mount Pleasant.
He left school at 15 and began work at Bailey’s horticultural establishment off Barkham Road.
It was here that he fell in love with carnations which remained a lifelong passion, exhibiting them around the country.
John worked for Wokingham Borough Council in environmental health, until he retired in 1997.
He could turn his hand to many things and was steeped in the old allotment ways of make do and mend.
He maintained his shed, which was described as leaning like the tower at Pisa, defying gravity, with an old front door from his daughter’s house.
And John was said to be the go-to man for gardening advice at Latimer Road because his knowledge was so extensive and he was always happy to share it and encourage others.
He won the best gardener prize at Latimer Road in the allotments competition many times – and rightly so.
Cllr Nick Campbell-White (Amenities Committee Chairman) said that John would be very much missed, not just by his three children but by others.
“To have gardened so successfully at Latimer Road allotments for so long is a wonderful achievement,” he said.
“The Town Council is so grateful to John for all of his efforts and for how he gardened at Latimer. Diligent and hard-working his plot always looked immaculate – whatever the time of year.
“To have maintained such a standard for so many years is a great testament to the man and the gardener.”
And Chris Ayres, a Latimer Road allotments gardener, said: “John was an inspiration to us all at Latimer Road.
“The way he gardened and what he knew about soil and plants couldn’t be bettered. He was so generous with his time and would help anyone with their gardening.
“On the flip side gardening helped John keep so young and fit into a ripe old age.”
