‘St Peter’s Gardens’ Project – one year on

The project to improve ‘St Peter’s Gardens’– the Churchyard and the piece of land south of Milk Alley, now known as the ‘Milk Alley Garden’ – got underway in October 2018. This was prompted by Sandwich in Bloom when they approached Chris Day, one half of the husband and wife team responsible for tending ‘The Secret Garden’ - the former South Aisle of St Peter’s – following George Raven’s decision to hand over the keys of ‘the blue door’ three years ago after devoting many years to its care and cultivation.‘The Secret Garden’ will be well-known to local residents and some visitors to the Town as a place of peace and solitude, though in recent years disrupted by the construction works to make the Tower accessible, and latterly the archaeological dig conducted at the west-end in January / February 2017, which, as the photograph here shows, left it levelled, with over 200 bags of top-soil to sieve and reinstate.

Setting themselves the target of opening for ‘Little Gardens’ in June 2018, retaining walls were built from excavated stone, beds stocked, arbours erected over the stairway and seat, and a lawn area grassed, the Days just made it! Here is how the west-end looked in June last year, but since then it has matured and blended in with the rest of the garden.

If you haven’t found ‘The Secret Garden’ just yet, you are very welcome to come in and enjoy this communal space. The door is opened at around 9 each morning and closed around 5 in winter and 7 in summer.

Thus, a co-ordinated programme of improvements outside ‘The Secret Garden’ was drawn up and having recruited a team of volunteers (coined the ‘Chain-Gang’!) the team set about the challenge of getting the Churchyard and neighbouring areas into good order, giving themselves 18 months to complete the task. This required a purge on the many shrubs that had grown out of control, the grubbing up of roots, and the gradual process of moving specimen plants to more appropriate locations. Some of the areas of the Churchyard that have felt the full force of the ‘Chain-Gang’ include the corner around the silver birch to the north-east of the Church. Here, following a ‘hard prune’ in the autumn, perennials from elsewhere in the Churchyard were transplanted.

Then, in December, we were ably assisted by youngsters from Sandwich Infants School, who came to the Church and planted bulbs in this area, so giving some much needed colour in the spring.

From the outset, it was intended that the Churchyard should have the means of composting some of its green waste, whilst finding ways of encouraging invertebrates and attracting pollinators, especially bees. The area to the extreme south of the present churchyard offered the best location for this - the former site of Court Hall. This, as the name suggests, was the Town’s court, lying as it did next door to the gaol, whilst also being the civic centre of its time, where the Mayor and jurats / councillors discharged their administrative duties from 1432 until 1579, when these functions were transferred to the newly-built Guildhall. This area is now dominated by the immense London plane tree, but one corner seemed well suited for the location of the compost bins and ‘Bug Hotel’ which would be constructed in the spring.

So, in early March, the area was cleared and a month or so later, with pallets and stakes kindly donated by Archers Low, volunteers from the Bird Observatory came along and built the ‘Bug Hotel’, at the same time

putting up ‘bat boxes’ on the London plane, and a bird box on the neighbouring sycamore designed for nesting starlings. Thus, by early April, with the two compost bins constructed, the churchyard had a place to deposit grass cuttings and a nicely-appointed residence for incoming insects and other invertebrates, and which, by August this year, had become nicely assimilated into its surroundings.

One of the interesting aspects of taking on an overgrown churchyard has been to discover how a number of plant species found in the undergrowth or in locations that received either too much, or insufficient, sunlight, seem to have thrived upon being moved, in particular ferns, hydrangeas, roses and, as the photograph below, taken in August, dhalias, now growing behind Noah’s Ark in King Street.

During the early spring of this year, members of the Chain-Gang formed into small groups to take on particular areas of the Gardens: the ‘Milk Alley Garden’ being singled out for special attention. Thanks to Sandwich in Bloom setting aside a generous sum for the purpose, an exciting planting scheme was drawn up by two of the team with horticultural experience and expertise.Then, as each additional feature of the garden was completed; first, the trellis (kindly donated by a local resident), then the raised bed constructed from recycled bricks (another kind donation) and in recent weeks, the arbour above the replacement bench (generously purchased by a local

businessman as a gesture of goodwill), the ‘Milk Alley Gals’ have planted up.

The photographs below show how the area looked before and after the ‘make-over’:

Fortunately, a resident of St Peter’s Street kindly offered the team free use of his garden tap to keep the area watered during the recent hot and dry spell as the ‘Milk Alley Garden’ is beyond the range of the tap in the South Porch. Through genuine team-work Milk Alley Garden now offers the visitor walking between The Quay and Guildhall Square a reason to stop and enjoy the colours of an English country garden, as evident this summer.

Work still remains to be done in the ‘Milk Alley Garden’, with the replacement and relocation of the rubbish bin, the planting up of climbers over the new arbour and the installation of a ‘wall bench’ along Milk Alley. This novel feature will be kindly undertaken by Dover DC following a request for a place for visitors to rest awhile when touring the town. The other area to be transformed has been the space behind Finns Estate Agents, where stands the 14th Century window from St Thomas’s Hospital erected here in 1923, several old gravestones in situ, and the plaque commemorating the gallantry of Lt Col Charles Newman VC. Now known as ‘The Memorial Garden’, a husband and wife team took on the job of

removing the enormous shrubs that dominated the space and grassing up to the wall, save for a bed now containing the hydrangeas relocated from the north side of the Church. They continue to mow and water the area which now looks as a churchyard should.

Before:

…and now:

Otherwise, there has been the gradual process of working their way around the Churchyard, sacrificing beds that had become ‘scrubby’, though not before planting bulbs, finding places to re-plant shrubs and perennials that could be moved, and broadcasting wild flower seeds in areas that they feel can be ‘wilded’. During this time the volunteers have received many generous donations of seeds, plants and top-soil from residents, and, of course, much advice, in the most part, informed and well-meaning!One most obvious improvement has been the state of the grassed areas since a volunteer took over the mowing from Dover DC in the spring. Aside from a weekly cut, sometimes two, the team’s ‘green-keeper’ has

top-dressed the grass and created beautiful ‘cut-stripes’, an especially welcome sight on the big lawn to the south of the Church.

As a result, residents and visitors can be seen sitting out on the grass having picnics and playing with their children, and there’s now thought of putting out deckchairs on warm, sunny days next year. Otherwise, the churchyard - though now better referred to as a ‘garden’ – plays host to the various events that bring people to Sandwich each year, including the Food Fayre in May.

As for the ‘Chain-Gang’, they’ve had their comings and goings during the year as people’s lives change and they find themselves with more or less time on their hands. However, the philosophy has remained the same - give of the time you can…but make sure you enjoy it! Although it’s been hard work at times, all report that it’s been fun since no-one seems to take themselves too seriously! Currently, they are a happy band of 8, putting in around two hours each per week, though many more when the need arises. It doesn’t feel right to keep time-sheets – everyone is considered equally valued regardless of the time they put in - but pushed to estimate the time spent on ‘St Peter’s Gardens’ in the past year, gang-master, Chris Day, thought it amounted to around 1000 hours! One major task that remains is to get the bed running alongside King Street thinned out of ‘woody’ shrubs, the soil dug and ‘fed’, and some new plants introduced that will give year-round interest and colour. However, this must wait until Dover DC is able to get around to pruning back the

two trees, so it looks like a job for the autumn. For the moment, a small patch of annuals planted in June have provided a splash of colour this summer, though with the promise of much better to come.

The ‘St Peter’s Chain-Gang’ is indebted to so many people and organisations in and around Sandwich, but especially to Sandwich in Bloom for providing the financial support to purchase plants; to Sarah Doyle at Archers Low for her horticultural wisdom and the supply of plants, compost and gardening equipment; and, to Thanet Waste for providing, still more so collecting, many bulk yellow waste sacks at the end of last year and the beginning of this.Looking ahead, the team feel they are on course to have the Garden under full cultivation by the end of the year, and looking great by next summer, ahead of The Open in July. However, speaking for the Chain-Gang, Chris wanted to thank all who had remarked upon the improvements made to the Churchyard over the past 12 months, though all believe that it’s a privilege to be able to work in such a special place.

If you would like to contribute of your time, or to donate plants or anything else you think might fit in well in St Peter’s Gardens, please contact Chris Day by telephoning: 01304-617755, or e-mailing: chrisday333@btinternet.com