Mistletoe auction goes ahead after flooding

Tradition held strong in a Worcestershire town hit by flooding, as its annual holly and mistletoe auction went ahead.

Tenbury Wells is widely known as the "mistletoe capital", and has been holding the event for more than 150 years.

People from across the country travel to the sale, which is organised by local estate agents Nick Champion. It was held at nearby Burford House Garden Centre on Tuesday.

"We get florists, farm shops, market traders, private individuals, all sorts really," he said.

On Sunday, the Kyre Brook in the town rose and caused a wall to collapse, flooding much of the town centre.

As well as having a huge impact on businesses, it affected the auction, too, despite the venue escaping any water.

"It has reduced the amount of stock that we have got to sell," Mr Champion told BBC Hereford and Worcester.

"People haven’t been able to get here.

"We’ve got a lot of holly wreaths, and about half the quantity of mistletoe and holly that we normally would have."

As well as this, he added the holly season had not been good.

"It's been a very bad cold and wet spring, and bees weren't pollinating the holly like they used to."

"Mistletoe seems to have done better, it seems to be quite good quality," he said.

As well as holly and mistletoe, people also sell Christmas trees and wreaths.

For more than 100 years, the sale was based at the town's cattle market, but nearly disappeared when the site was sold for development in 2004.

Mr Champion kept the sale alive by moving it over the border to Herefordshire for four years.

Following this, the Tenbury English Mistletoe Enterprise (TEME) was set up to revive Tenbury's traditional status as the mistletoe-trading capital of the UK.

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