During the isolation of 2020’s pandemic lockdown, Helena cultivated a beautiful green space on the steps down to her front door. She told me it meant everything to her during that time—a place that she could sit and feel that she might be ‘anywhere’. This green space brought a sense of freedom.
The memorial garden is one of the green spaces in the care of St Nicholas Church. Amanda, the church’s green spaces coordinator, supports the volunteer gardeners via The Friends of St Nicholas Church—so that they are properly constituted. The gardeners are not usually church goers but generally live nearby. A grant has recently been awarded by the Urban Tree Challenge Fund.
The space’s status as a memorial garden used to mean no dogs were allowed inside—in recent years the council changed the signage so that dogs were permitted. Amanda feels this means the garden is busier, and so safer overall.
During the winter St Nicholas’ doors were kept open as much as possible. It’s warmer inside and it was hoped that this might help alleviate some of the misery around the cost-of-living crisis. People did come in.
Amanda wants feet inside the Church and feet in the grounds—to keep the spaces alive and to keep them going.
