Garden gets new life thanks to local support

When Winthrop Park, which run the Ecominds project Enterprise and Outreach, began creating their new sensory garden they knew they needed a little help.

Local business and community members came in numbers to help get the transformation underway – this is their story.

The vision of our new sensory garden is of a restful retreat away from the main park that incorporates planting in a green and cool theme which will provide a therapeutic area for people to relax and unwind.

But before we could make our site into a peaceful environment we had some rather large jobs to complete that we couldn’t do alone, so we asked the local community for a helping hand.

Despite an appalling winter of deep snow and severe cold, work started in December to remove the old filter beds, a legacy of the former sewage treatment works on which Winthrop Park was created.

We have a team of community volunteers and received donations of time and equipment from local companies. Initially some 160 tons of concrete filter beds were removed and the site levelled, a 60-ton crane arrived to lift and move equipment, new landscaping materials were brought onto site, and waste materials recycled.

The help from businesses giving us support has been amazing…Rotherham Mini Diggers came along with concrete-breaking equipment and managed to dig out the old filter beds, then PP Engineering offered one of their 60-ton cranes to give us a lift, Milltol stepped in to help with recycling issues and Breedon Aggregates kindly gave us landscaping materials. David Bowser, Trustee of Winthrop Park

During 2010 Winthrop Park helped over 9,800 people from across South Yorkshire and North Derbyshire through their nature therapy facilities and outreach activities. The Park opens for the new season, which starts on 1 April when visitors will be able to see the changes made and new facilities created over the winter to both gardens and facilities.

Visit www.winthroppark.co.uk for more information or telephone 01709 709335.