The Sensory Garden, Chapel Street

Derby in Bloom prize-winner

Only weeks after its official opening, the Sensory Garden in Chapel Street has won its first award, coming second in the "Community garden" category of the Derby in Bloom competition, organised by the Derby Evening Telegraph and Derby City Council.

Congratulations also to the residents of The Beeches, who won first prize in the "Best Street" category, with Vancouver Avenue taking third prize. Pat Harrison of Sancroft Road took the prize for best leisure garden. These and many other Spondon gardens were featured in the special telegraph supplement issued on Saturday 12^th August.

How it started

Residents of Spondon will know that this area (shown on the right) on Chapel Street has been sadly neglected over the years. The City Council still maintains it but this is largely restricted to keeping the grass mown! In the past year, the Village Improvement Committee has done some work to try and restore this as it was a popular place for passers-by to have a quite sit down. Our attempts to put in some crocuses for this spring were thwarted by greedy squirrels who found and devoured all 3000 we planted!

Some months ago, as reported elsewhere, we persuaded Broomfield College to help us with a design to renovate the area. Two of the tutors and a group of students came and surveyed the area in January (seen on the left) and have been constructing some design ideas since then. Their tutor, Mike Baldwin has now selected the two that he regards as the most promising and has asked the Committee to select their favourite.

Work started in the summer of 2005, clearing the site ready for the start of planting in 2006.

We have received a grant of £1,000 from the Nottingham East Midlands Airport Community Fund which will help our project to refurbish the cemetery on Chapel Lane. This was used to fund a new sculptural seat for the area, and we commissioned a design from Andrew Frost, the noted local artist. This was installed in January 2006 and is seen in the picture below. This was also reported in the Derby Evening Telegraph.

The cemetery project was featured in our successful entry to Britain in Bloom and is now making good progress.

The Sensory Garden

The following article was printed in the May 2006 issue of the SCA newsletter.

Last year a couple of our members had the idea of brightening up the disused cemetery on Chapel Street by turning it into a sensory garden.

We contacted Broomfield College to ask if they would like to submit some ideas for the shape and content of the garden. It was decided that Spondon’s first piece of sculpture should also be in this area. Andrew Frost, a sculptor from Wirksworth, was contacted and at the end of February we installed an eight foot long oak leaf, standing on two acorns (pictured right ). Please go and see it. If you like it, maybe it could be the start of a sculpture trail in Spondon.

An information board is also planned, which will tell you something about the history of the area and the wildlife you may see and hear in the garden.

None of the above improvements were cheap to implement. Money had to be raised before we could go ahead with our plans. Nottingham East Midlands Airport came up with most of the money for the sculpture; other generous donations came from The Ancient Order of Foresters and Acetate Products. The Area Panel also gave us a grant for plants and other improvements in the Chapel Street area and the Parks Department donated some lavender and rosemary bushes. We would like to take this opportunity to thank Collyers of Borrowash for the excellent plants we bought from them and the generous discount we received as well.
The completion of this has been our major project this year. We plan to have an official opening of the garden in the afternoon of 17^th June. But of course you are welcome to go and see the work in progress.

The Derby Evening Telegraph printed a story about the opening at the beginning of June.

Official opening

The sensory garden was officially opened on Saturday 17^th June by the Mayor of the City of Derby, Councillor John Ahern (shown here testing the seat sculpture designed by Andrew Frost , standing behind).

Margaret Kelley, chair of the Committee, thanked those who had made donation to allow the sensory garden to happen - Ancient Order of Foresters (members shown here admiring the information board they helped to fund), Acetate Products, Nottingham East Midlands Airport and the City Council's Area Panel 1.

The Mayor, who used to be a City Councillor for Spondon paid tribute to the partnership working exemplified by the Village Improvement Committee. He then planted two shrubs, aided by the local Brownies and Rainbows. A large crowd included three descendants of people buried in the cemetery as well as the Broomfield College student whose design was used in the planting.

The Derby Evening Telegraph reported the event here.

Take a look at the other major VIC projects (the Severn-Trent clock, support for the re-opening of Derby & Sandiacre Canal, West Park Meadows Local Nature Reserve and the Village History Trail), or past and planned events.