• A grassy bank outside a stone building with a red door

Help us design our new community garden at Calverley Old Hall

Thanks to National Lottery players, we are creating a brand-new garden at Calverley Old Hall for the community to use, and in March 2024 we asked for your help. 

As part of our restoration, we have created a new community space at Calverley Old Hall which will be available for hire. Alongside the new indoor space, we will also be creating a new community garden which will be available for use by the local community free of charge. 

We would like to ensure that the garden becomes a real asset to the community and is valued for years to come. With this in mind, we feel that it is important for the garden to be designed with the community’s needs in mind, with direct input from those who will become the end users of the garden, the local community. We therefore invited our neighbours in and around Calverley to contribute ideas for the design of the space. 

The final design of the garden will be inspired by all of your designs and will include as many ideas as possible. 

The brief

The garden is currently not a flat space, as it slopes down from the boundary wall towards the building. Due to the historic nature of the site, we are unable to undertake huge excavations of earth, so any designs should bear this slope in mind.  

There are also some features on the site which cannot be changed. The current stone flagged pathway and boundary walls of the garden will remain, with a third boundary created with a natural hedge. 

What lies within this area however, is up to you! 

Your garden design ideas 

We had some excellent suggestions from people of all ages in response to our design brief. Here are just some of the creative entries.

  • Charlie age 6

    Charlie, age 6

  • Sorcha age 7

    Sorcha, age 7

  • Ian age 49

    Ian, age 49

  • Kendall age 10

    Kendall, age 10

  • George age 6

    George, age 6

With thanks to The National Lottery Heritage Fund

The restoration of Calverley Old Hall is made possible with The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Thanks to National Lottery players, we have been able to secure the future of this Grade-1 listed building.

The National Lottery Heritage Fund is the largest funder for the UK’s heritage. Using money raised by National Lottery players we support projects that connect people and communities to heritage. Our vision is for heritage to be valued, cared for and sustained for everyone, now and in the future. From historic buildings, our industrial legacy and the natural environment, to collections, traditions, stories and more.

Heritage can be anything from the past that people value and want to pass on to future generations. We believe in the power of heritage to ignite the imagination, offer joy and inspiration, and to build pride in place and connection to the past.

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