The People's Award is voted for by BBC viewers and visitors

The nine inmates from Leyhill Prison also won a gold medal at the London event earlier this week for their garden entry entitled No Time To Stand And Stare.

The Gloucestershire open prison's entry is the latest in a series of Chelsea gardens it has created.

Previously, inmates have won silver at Chelsea in 2001 and gold in 2000.

I congratulate them all on this fantastic result and look forward to next year's garden with anticipation Phil Wheatley Prison Service

The People's Award for the garden - which features an arched bridge, a woodland walk and a boathouse - was voted for by BBC viewers and visitors to the flower show.

Phil Wheatley, director general of the Prison Service, said: "Winning the People's Award is a wonderful achievement. In some ways it means more than the Gold Medal.

"I congratulate them all on this fantastic result and look forward to next year's garden with anticipation."

The garden is an interpretation of the Henry Davies poem of the same name, and features the colours and textures of wild flowers in their natural habitat.

All Leyhill prisoners are required to work whilst inside, on jobs ranging from printing, woodwork, laundry, farming, gardening, building maintenance and kitchen work.