The Tudor Rose Festival was started by Phyllis & John Walker in 1993.  Sadly, John Walker died before the first festival took place but Phyllis, with the help of her friend Judy Armour, carried on with the festival, which went from strength to strength, including joining the All England Dance Festival.  In 2004, Phyllis Walker retired due to ill health but kept in touch with the festival up until her death on 7 June 2008.  In September 2017, Judy Armour, who had been a writer for our adjudicators for so long, sadly passed away unexpectedly.  Her skills and dedication to the festival are greatly missed.

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Over the years there have been many people who have given freely of their time, including Brigadier Dennison (Chairman) and his wife Fiona, and Councillor Mike Pooley (Chairman) and his wife Carole.  Our current Chairman, Nikki Mansell, is ably assisted by Katy Payne, Vice-Chairman, Sheila Mellors, Hon General Secretary, Fiona Richmond, Festival Safeguarding Officer, Steve Mellors, Treasurer, Amy Philpott, Lisa Ivey, Natalie Wells and Tanya Pryke-Smith.  We also have a team of Festival Helpers who work tirelessly to provide a wonderful platform for these youngsters to show off their talents.  The Committee and Festival Helpers are volunteers and are appreciated greatly.  We could not run a festival without them.

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Every year now, the Dance Festival has approximately 1200 - 2000 entries and performances take place over four/five weekends - a huge organisational undertaking that requires dedication, enormous stamina and a sense of humour to boot.  On All England Dance qualifying years the number of entries is usually higher than we can cope with and, despite trying to accommodate every entry, it is just not possible to fit everyone in.

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Our Festival has a friendly atmosphere and we rely on help from a variety of sources—if you feel you would like to help us in any way, please contact one of our Committee members.