THEY have a reserve in case it’s a rainy day but the committee who organise the Alresford Watercress Festival had no need to dip into it on Sunday when the sun shone as thousands filled the historic town for the 10th annual festival in celebration of watercress that for centuries grew in the chalky streams around the town.

It has put Alresford on the world map and each year the town acknowledges this with what has become one of the biggest events in the South East, a kaleidoscope of food, stalls, music, entertainers, competitions, and morris dancers.

It also featured a grand procession of the Watercress King and Queen – Sun Hill Infant School pupils Charley Abbott, seven, and Isaac Kennedy, six, who distributed the first of the season’s watercress harvest.

Riding on board a horse and cart, they were accompanied around the town by Sussex Jazz Kings, Basingclog Morris, Hook Eagles Morris, Dorset Buttons Rapper, Mayflower Morris, and fellow pupils from Sun Hill Infant School and Sun Hill Junior School.

Crowds who came by car, train, coach or simply walked arrived early to be greeted by 110 stalls, selling everything from produce and books to craft and jewellery, as well as a big farmers’ market set to a background of music, ukuleles, brass band favourites and jazz which filled Broad Street during the day while, at lunchtime, Perins School showcased their musical, Phantom.

As well as music, the smell of delicious meals being prepared by award-winning chefs in the cookery unit also filled the air and demonstrating their skills were Andy Mackenzie of Exclusive Chef’s Academy, Phil Yeomans from the Marwell Hotel, Daniel Chirita and Shunji Irokawa of Kyoto Kitchen, and Chris Barnes and Tom Watson from the Hoddington Arms, who vied with each other to produce the best dish.

During the afternoon, the Watercress Festival Awards presentation took place to the winner of the most attractive stall, won by Sole Butchers, and the most creative use of watercress, which was won by Picnic Hamper with their blue cheese and watercress tart.

The World Watercress Eating Championships are one of the festival highlights and a big crowd gathered to see the contestants tuck into mounds of the green plant with its distinctive peppery flavour. It isn’t known just how many kilograms Glenn Walsh managed to slide down but he was crowned champion for the third consecutive year.

St John’s Church, not to be outdone in the festivities, hosted a range of music throughout the day which began with Sun Hill infants song and dance before a change of pace saw Alresford Community Choir and Godalming Brass fill the churchyard with their rousing sound. At lunchtime, Southampton Ukulele Jam ran a workshop for would-be musicians.

Throughout the day, the Basingclog Morris, Hook Eagles Morris, the all-girl Mayflower Morris and Buttons Rapper danced and played music on the streets. Joining them was the Alresford Ukulele Jam, and a small section of Godalming Brass performed in West Street.

It was, as always, a spectacular occasion and organising committee chairman John Cattle said at the end of the festival how grateful he was to the Alresford PIGS, the rugby and cricket clubs, the town council, the National Farmers’ Union, Chamber of Commerce, Hampshire Farmers’ Markets, Southern Cooperative, Alresford and Cheriton Scouts, Barnes and Liddiard, 345 Pre-school and Busybees Pre-school for their support.

“We are very pleased with how everything has gone,” he said.

“We try to make it something for everyone, especially for all the family, and we had a lot of activities and fun things for the children. Of course, our Watercress Eating Championships was, as always, very popular. Two years ago we got into the Guinness Book of Records for the most watercress eaten in one sitting.

“We have a wonderful committee who worked their socks off, as they do every year, to organise it and we are also grateful to all those who supported us and to those who came to the festival.”

Of the money raised, he said: “After we have met all the costs, which are very high, most of the rest goes to donations to our local clubs, but we also keep a bit in reserve in case we get a rainy day and have to move everything under cover.”

Watercress has always grown wild in the chalk streams and ditches in and around Alresford and is believed to have been picked and eaten by townsfolk for centuries.

It was far too perishable to be transported by horse and cart along poor roads and so it was not until the coming of the railway to Alresford in 1865 that it became a commercial proposition to transport the crop to London and the Midlands. Cress could be picked in the afternoon, transported by cart to Alresford station in the evening, and be on sale in Covent Garden in the early hours of the following morning.

Over the next 60 years, the number of growers and acreage under cultivation increased and in 1925 an agreed code of practice and more modern cultivation methods began to squeeze out the smaller growers.

The code of practice was aimed mainly at removing possible sources of contamination and it was at this time that the main production moved from simply being grown in rivers and streams to the cress beds seen today with impermeable sides to prevent entry of river water. Bore holes provide chalk-filtered water from 40 feet below the surface at the rate of 2,500 litres per hour at a constant temperature and refrigerated lorries can now transport it all around the country.

But Mr Cattle said: “My late wife could recall when she was a little girl helping to put the fresh-picked water cress into hessian bags before they were loaded onto the London train.”