Access for all in our beautiful Therapy Garden

The image shows Allan Seeley and his carer, Marie Henderson

We are delighted that, after months of restricted access, our Therapy Garden is now fully open!

It all started as a simple project back in March 2025:  laying and extending the path, which wheelchair users were finding difficult to use. To cut a very long story short, despite numerous attempts and a lot of different tips and options, a “hoggin” surface simply could not be made to suit our needs.

After getting several quotes, we found a highly recommended specialist who looked favourably on our project. One condition of his quote was that the existing material would need to be relocated onsite. So when a group of corporate volunteers came in from Lloyds Banking Group at the end of April, part of the plan was to clear an unused but overgrown area at the side of the building to make space for the unwanted path material.

Click here to read that blog: Lloyds Banking Group volunteers do an amazing job

Last week, on Wednesday 16 June, another group of volunteers came in from Aviva to help prepare the ground for the arrival of our repurposed RHS garden. As it happened, the path contractors also arrived a day earlier than expected. At first, we were a little worried about having both jobs going on at once, but thank goodness they were there. The volunteers were not making as much progress as they had hoped, as they kept hitting huge concrete blocks buried in the ground. Thankfully, the contractors were able to use their heavy lifting equipment to move these slabs, allowing the volunteers to then cut the beds out to the prearranged shape and location.

The contractors finished the path off on Thursday and, much to our surprise, flattened off all the discarded hogging in the cleared space too, so we now have a smart new cleared and levelled storage area as a bonus!

We would like to say a massive thank you to our three generous sponsors, who made all of this possible: St James's Place, Councillor John Bradbury, and Woodstock Homes and to P Phillips and Sons Ltd for supporting our volunteers and going the extra mile in improving the area to the back of the building.

This has been a truly collaborative project, with so many people involved, staff, volunteers, supporters and suppliers all playing their part!

We would now like to invite everyone to come and enjoy this wonderful space.

Not long now until the RHS pocket garden is relocated here too!

We are very fortunate indeed.