Thanks to the hard work by volunteers, the Community Garden on St Mary’s Church Green has been awarded the 2026 Royal Horticultural Society’s Britain in Bloom Outstanding Award in the “It’s your neighbourhood” category. Sensory Gardens
The Community Garden on St Mary’s Church Green was originally founded by the charity Toc H in 1967, but became neglected. In 2016, a small band of volunteers, led by Brenda Hart, and with support from West Bletchley Council, successfully bid for funding to begin a restoration process so that the garden could be an asset to the community.
West Bletchley Shed, led by Jim Razey, offered their assistance:
- Installed decking to keep the soil from being washed away.
- Built a rainwater harvester and wildlife homes for hedgehogs and insects.
- Made signs and wooden boxes for local primary school children to paint and decorate.
- Dug the ground to enable new shrubs to be planted.
- During lockdown, painted the wooden benches with preservative and smartened up the metal railings at the front of the garden – this work enabled volunteers to meet in an outdoor setting whilst providing a valuable service to the community.
- Three old benches that were badly worn with missing struts were replaced by benches that had been made by a local chainsaw carver from a dead ash tree sourced from within West Bletchley.
The Sensory Garden is now a volunteer-maintained local green space featuring dedicated zones like a wildflower area, an aromatic herb zone, and rose beds, managed entirely by community volunteers and groups such as the West Bletchley Shed and Bletchley Lions. It is home to 32 David Austin roses, herbs, rockery, and a wild flower garden and is funded by donations.
In addition to bringing the Church Green Sensory Garden back to its former glory, the volunteers also tend to the nearby War Memorial area to ensure it looks its best for Remembrance Sunday each year.
Sadly, and despite lots of care and attention, the magnolia tree planted in the War Memorial Garden by BPARA in 2022 to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee died. It has been replaced by a display of ceramic poppies. Fortunately, the trees planted on Church Green in 2002 to commemorate the Golden Jubilee, and in Bletchley Park in 2012 for the Diamond Jubilee, have thrived over the years – see below.
