Hatfield took Silver Gilt and the Small City title at Anglia in Bloom, Parkway and Howardsgate won Gold, and a Hatfield children's garden won a national RHS award.

Hatfield has been named the region’s best small city in this year’s Anglia in Bloom awards, and Welwyn Garden City’s Parkway and Howardsgate gardens took a Gold.

The results were announced at the awards on 24 September. Anglia in Bloom is the regional campaign, run in association with the RHS, for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

The borough’s results

Entry Category Award
Hatfield Small City Silver Gilt, and category winner
Parkway and Howardsgate, Welwyn Garden City Public Parks Gold
Oak Hill Crematorium, Hatfield Crematoria Silver
Potential Kids, Hatfield Best Young People’s Project (12 to 18) Nominated

All four come from the published 2026 results on the Anglia in Bloom website.

Two things about the table are worth knowing. Hatfield was the only entry in the Small City category, so the title came with its Silver Gilt rather than from beating a rival. And the Parks category was strong: 15 of its 17 entries won Gold. The category winner was Wootton Park in South Wootton, near King’s Lynn.

The Hertfordshire county champion was Berkhamsted. The overall Anglia in Bloom winner for 2026 was Filby, a village in Norfolk.

What the judges saw

The judges toured Hatfield in July, according to Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council. Their route took in:

  • Hatfield House
  • the town centre and its rebuilt Market Place
  • the new planting in Salisbury Square, Old Hatfield
  • Minster Wood

The council says entries were judged on plant choice, maintenance, environmental responsibility and community involvement.

Councillor Jane Quinton, the council’s executive member for environment, said: “I am so proud that Welwyn Hatfield has succeeded yet again in winning these top awards and extending our excellent record in the Anglia in Bloom competition!”

That record is real. Last year the Welwyn Hatfield business improvement district took Silver Gilt and won its category, according to the 2025 results.

A national award for a garden in a car park

The best news may be the smallest entry. Potential Kids, a Hatfield charity for neurodivergent children and young people, has won the RHS Gardening with Young People Award, according to the council. It says Anglia in Bloom’s judges put the charity forward for it.

The award is for the charity’s Potential to Grow garden. The charity says it has turned about 5,000 square feet of The Galleria’s north car park, off Comet Way, into vegetable and herb plots, wildflower and perennial beds and a sensory garden. It is used to help children build social skills and friendships, and for outdoor learning sessions for home-educated young people, according to the charity’s own page.

The charity says it is always looking for volunteers for the garden.

What it means for you

The Parkway and Howardsgate gardens are free to walk through in the centre of Welwyn Garden City, and Minster Wood and the Old Hatfield planting are open too. If you want to help keep the borough’s entries at this level, the council’s Bloom work relies on volunteers and community groups, and Potential Kids takes garden volunteers through its website.

More ideas for a day out are on things to do in Welwyn Garden City.

Sources