Reg’s Garden at Farnborough North was officially opened on Monday 13th September by three of the Duke of Edinburgh Award volunteer students from a local school who were given time off to perform the duty.
Sir Peter Hendy ( Chair of Network Rail), Mark Hopwood (MD of GWR) and John Roe the area railway chaplain all spoke of the magnificent efforts of Mike Knott and his team to change a wilderness adjacent to the North Downs Line into peaceful garden for all the Community. Mike presented each of the speakers with a jar of honey labelled ‘Reg’s Garden’ which was made in the hives at the far end of the garden.
GWR have funded some of the work via their various community funds and Network Rail own the old station house which should be rented to Farnborough Street Residents Association very soon. The next phase of work in the garden will be to clear and / or chip a lot of branches ready for the siting of allotments so there is still much work to be done.
Everyone agreed that it has been an amazing transformation and the Residents Association has grown to over 3 times its original size as a direct result of community involvement in the garden.
all ready for the opening
