Coleshill Day Services had their Sensory Garden transformed thanks to the generosity of HS2 funding. It had been the dream of the Coleshill Day Services team to have their Sensory Garden made into a safe place for clients to enjoy and interact with nature and stimulate their senses.
Before their garden was uneven, broken and waterlogged which meant it was unsafe for our clients who use wheelchairs. Our team at Day Services had been fundraising for years through table top sales and Christmas Fayres but the cost of the works that needed doing meant it would have taken many years to achieve without the support of Balfour Beatty Vinci and HS2 contractors.
Before photos
As you can see from the photos the ground was bumpy and uneven, with moss growing across the surface. This made it unsuitable for our clients with wheelchairs.
Unfortunately our trees needed to be removed, because they were dead at the core or their roots were contributing to the uneven tarmac.
Our garden was not safe or a place that you wanted to spend a lot of time because of the condition it was in. This limited our use of it, and meant our clients had to stay inside instead of enjoying fresh air and nature, which has many benefits.
The transformation begins...
The team got to work, taking trees down and levelling the ground ready for tarmac to be relaid.
New Tarmac!
After the ground had been cleared we had new tarmac laid, making the ground level and safe for our clients. A massive improvement from before, and a huge thank you to the team for their hard work.
Grand Opening July 2024
Coleshill Day Services would like to say a heartfelt thank you to the following organisations, businesses and individuals who helped make this happen:
- Balfour Beatty Vinci
- HS2
- Tarmac
- VMS Limited
- Merstone School
- Twin Rivers Women’s Institute
- CBRE
- Mr Matthews
- Coleshill high street businesses
- Gallagher
- Day Services team
- Father Hudson’s Maintenance team
An article in the Coleshill Post started our journey to transform our sensory garden. Julia, who works in Day Services, saw an article about HS2 funding for local organisations. We followed up and now we have a beautiful garden to enjoy!
We were supported by our local community, with Twin Rivers WI choosing us as their Charity of the Year in 2023. They hosted a quiz night in Coleshill Town Hall, and had a cake stand at our summer fair, raising £1843 towards the garden. We have been boosted by generous donations from local people, people who have held stands at our table top sales, and Coleshill businesses who donated raffle and tombola prizes.
Our supporters joined us for the grand opening day, along with family and friends of our clients. We provided a buffet lunch with thank you cakes for visitors to enjoy. On the day we had entertainment from Reza Farrell, who sang for us. She was familiar with Day Services, having provided exercise classes there before. Damian joined her for some of the song, shouting “Bob” joyfully.
Savannah is the sister of one of our clients and she dressed up as a bee and butterfly on the day, keeping with the garden theme. She was on stilts and brought smiles to our clients and guests.
“All of us at Day Service would like to say thank you to everyone that has been involved in helping our team to fundraise, so thank you to the volunteers, to those who have donated raffle prizes for us and have purchased tables, to Balfour Beatty Vinci and Tarmac for giving us a space our service users are free and safe to explore no matter their ability. Your generosity has enabled our dream to come true. You have all made a huge difference, thank you.”
