With its lush greenery and bursts of vivid colour, the Bedfords Park Walled Garden is quite literally blooming.
But this picture is worlds away from the reality of the site two years ago, when the historic walls had been left to crumble and the environment to grow untamed.
The garden, part of the Bedfords estate, remained out of use for more than a decade, but thanks to the efforts of charity Clear Village and the community, the food-growing hub is now thriving.
The charity formed the concept with groups such as Havering Council, the Friends of Bedfords Park and Essex Wildlife Trust.
The two-acre attraction secured funding through a Local Food grant and a lease was taken from the council, with work then starting to spark the site’s transformation, with the help of 20 volunteers.
Project manager Kirsty McArdle said: “The original walls from the 1770s started to collapse and we had to do an awful lot of repair work to make the site safe.
“It was a jungle.”
The onus is now on developing the attraction, in Broxhill Road, Havering-atte-Bower, further and providing opportunities for people to improve their wellbeing.
A Big Lottery Fund Reaching Communities grant of almost £333,000, for three years, is helping to achieve this.
Volunteers lend a hand on Tuesdays and Thursdays, from 10am to 3pm, and two new initiatives are set to kick off – the “Growing Friends” club for over-50s and formal training courses.
Kirsty, who lives nearby in Stapleford Abbotts, said: “There is no horticultural training in Havering.
“We want to benefit young people who have learning difficulties or are long-term unemployed by giving them confidence in getting jobs and helping them feel confident in themselves.
“We are hopefully going to run a project for youth offenders as well, to give them some skills and aid their health and wellbeing.
“We want to help as many people and train as many people as possible.”
The participants, set to number 40 overall, will learn how to grow their own food and will achieve a Level 1 Award in Horticulture.
The scheme will kick off in September, with further qualifications set to become available from 2016.
The Growing Friends club will provide gardening opportunities and social activities, with its first meeting taking place on Wednesday.
It will run from 11-3pm on the first Wednesday of every month and the idea is for members to shape the group into what they want it to be.
The garden also runs the Grow
At the heart of the attraction is the community, which will be handed the site in 2018.
Kirsty said: “We are going to hand the garden over to community management, but we don’t know what form that will be.
“That was always the plan, to pass it on.
“The volunteers are absolutely vital. They love the garden and have done it all themselves.
“They bring the energy to the garden and it is a joy to be part of it.”
For more information, email kirsty@clear-village.org or visit bedfordswalledgarden.org.
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