AN OVERGROWN yard has been transformed into a community garden, thanks to the work of volunteers and donations from several organisations.

The Sedbury Space garden was officially opened by Countess Bathurst on Saturday afternoon (June 15).

The community group opened its doors in a former shop in King Alfred’s Road in April last year, and offers a range of activities from a memory cafe to knit and natter, board game evenings, gentle exercise classes and a homework club.

The cost of transforming the piece of land was £7,000.

Chair of Sedbury Space, Rev Janice Hamilton, said Gloucestershire County Council had contributed £4,000, including funds for a shed and the hard landscaping.

The Bags of Help scheme at Tesco in Chepstow donated £2,000, alongside £1,500 from Chepstow Rotary for planting and a bench, and £1,000 from the Gloucestershire Police and Crime Commissioner to help secure the site.

Rev Hamilton also thanked the local Spar shop for kicking it off with a donation of plants, and landlords Two Rivers Housing who extended the lease to include the garden area.

She said: “There have been a lot of potterers helping to keep it maintained and looking nice.

“We hope that will continue with lots more potterers to keep it watered and keeping the weeds down.”

Lady Bathurst – who lives in Cirencester and is an ambassador for the Commissioner – said Sedbury Space was one of those “little gems and little treasures” to be found all around Gloucestershire.

She said: “When I was High Sheriff of Gloucestershire (in 2016), I went around a lot of places just like this and it occurred to me they are the little gems and the little treasures in communities.

“I think without your collective hard work and support – and it’s like this right across the nation – our country would be on its knees within a week 

“Huge congratulations to you all for making this wonderful community space, and I hope you use it every day of the week because that is what it is here for, so nobody has to be lonely in Sedbury ever again.

“It does my heart good, because loneliness is a terrible thing in our communities. 

“Encourage people to use it if they could do with a bit of company and they are a little bit shy, get them to walk around this gorgeous garden and may be do a bit of deadheading.”