Coronavirus Statement April 1, 2020

Updated 10 December 2021

Visiting the Gardens in Winter  – an update

Martineau Gardens is open for public visits Mondays – Saturdays, from 10am until 4pm, (excluding bank holidays) and are free to visit. Your donations are always welcomed. As part of our Covid-19 safety measures, our public buildings and glasshouses continue to be closed to the public, unless you have hired the Pavilion. Our toilets and shipwreck play area are open. We can serve you hot drinks outside. So wrap up warm, enjoy a brisk walk around the gardens, a breath of fresh air and a little bit of peace and quiet in our tranquil gardens.

In the light of the latest government announcements, if you need to visit the Office, please wear a mask if you are able to and observe social distancing.

Over the Festive period

We close at 4pm Thursday 23 December and reopen 10am Tuesday 4 January, 2022.

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Weathering the storm March 25, 2020

We need your support more than ever during these difficult times. Please help us to carry on so that we can still be the hope in many people’s lives. As a small organisation we’re facing all the challenges that temporary closure (due to Government advice around Covid-19) brings.  With public visits, venue hire and events postponed, and the corresponding income streams removed, we are doing our best to weather the storm.

Donations now will ensure our running costs are met meaning we can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet.

We are trying to look after the Gardens as long as we can, within the current guidelines. We look to the future where we can be a safe and welcoming space for all to connect with nature and improve wellbeing. Many of us will need this more than ever.

Our Gardens still need to be tended, during this temporary closure, and we are hugely appreciative of those who are in a position to be able to get to Martineau Gardens and keep on top of the gardening.

Click here to donate to Martineau Gardens

Local Giving – our chosen on-line giving platform for collecting donations (including gift-aid), have reduced their fees. Find out more here

 


Freedom to play March 2, 2020

The shipwreck play area in by-gone days

At time of writing, playparks across the country have been closed. Hard times for children.

You’re never too young to benefit from time spent outside – the play area at Martineau Gardens has been a well-used, much loved area providing opportunity for children to engage their imagination and improve their wellbeing at the same time. Using the natural landscape and features of the Gardens in play, whether it’s hide and seek, sandpit constructions, picnics or pirate fun – families can connect with nature and each other. Martineau Gardens is a safe and an inclusive space offering play without cost, within an area of extreme economic disparity. School children on educational visits also play here during their lunch breaks.

Due to a big increase in footfall recently, in the winter months we plan to update and repair the Pirate Shipwreck area- it will be in keeping with our commitment to consider the environment and wildlife in all we do.

You can help us by:

*Contributing to our planning stage by filling out our questionnaire (either on-line here) 

* Note whether your local shop is Co op since there are five stores nearby that are supporting Martineau Gardens with this year’s Local Community Fund. Read more:http://bit.ly/2IAdEGO


Play Area Survey March 1, 2020

Play Area Development: Visitor Input

We are planning to redevelop the area and would value your input. Please answer the questions below and add anything else that you think is relevant.

Thank you so much for your input.

Find out more here.

 


Volunteering matters March 1, 2020

Martineau Gardens Volunteer: Aubrey

 

Aubrey – back in the new garden area he has helped to create

This is Aubrey, a volunteer on our Therapeutic Horticulture Programme. His story is one of incredible challenges, met and overcome with resilience and determination. In six months, he has become  a valued team member and has made huge changes in his personal life.

Aubrey hasn’t had it easy and he admits to making choices when he was younger, that he now regrets. He had a difficult childhood, with lots of setbacks.

A little over six months ago, Aubrey came for a trial volunteering session at Martineau Gardens, after facing rejection at other places, he describes a very different experience. He chatted to people, felt at ease and really believed that he would fit in. He wasn’t wrong; a few days later, he got a call from the office ….

“I thought they’d changed their mind and didn’t want me. I was gutted, but instead they asked for my help. They had been let down and needed some digging doing straight away on a new garden. They needed me!”

So Aubrey and some other volunteers came in and saved the day, they worked incredibly hard, laughed and dug and chatted and made friends in the mud. A regular and much loved Martineau Gardens’ volunteer since that day in the Courtyard Garden, Aubrey describes how even on days when he really doesn’t feel like getting up, he still comes in, because he knows he will feel better afterwards. Coming on the bus, he says he feels different – there’s an excitement and real sense of something good about to happen and at the end of the day he’s tired but feels really lifted to have done something that helps.

It’s hard to hear Aubrey talk about the things that make a difference to him when he volunteers at Martineau Gardens. He talks about being shamed at school because he needed help with reading and writing. Teachers and students joined together and laughed at him in front of everybody. He says:

“When I’m working here, Stewart notices if I don’t know how to do something. I don’t even have to ask. He shows me without making me feel stupid. That matters.

Just before Christmas, we got the best news … Aubrey was assessed as being able to have his own supported flat. He and we are so proud and that was even before he told us he had two job offers.  A new job means he might have to leave Martineau Gardens, but Aubrey will always be part of the Martineau Gardens family; if we could, we would have given him a job. He said:

“Martineau Gardens has given me hope.  Hope that I can get a legal job and never have to be looking over my shoulder again.”

 


Making a difference – workshops for wellbeing at Martineau Gardens March 1, 2020

If you know Martineau Gardens then we’re sure like us, you feel the intrinsically restorative qualities of our beautiful, natural environment. Our Therapeutic Horticulture programme has been running successfully for many years and we wanted to explore other ways the Gardens could help improve wellbeing. Supported by Bupa UK Foundation, we have been able to offer, without charge, creative courses to people who are 40-65 years and are experiencing self-identified problems with their mental health. The workshops run over five mornings each, and use the Gardens as inspiration. Mosaics (participants and artworks pictured above) photography have run, and planned for the future are creative writing, Tai chi and creative gardening.  Our aim is that participants and through them, their friends and families will carry with them, in the words of one our volunteers ‘the big green hug that is Martineau Gardens’ and will continue to visit this restorative space for a long time to come.

We look forward to the time when we can run the remaining courses —please check our website for updates.


Thank you Ray March 1, 2020

Ray Bowers

When John Gale retired as our Volunteer Beekeeper, Ray Bowers and Sam Walker took on the mantle, tending our bees, running beekeeping courses and the Honey Show. Ray has stepped down from his role here at the Gardens.  We hugely appreciate his enthusiasm and friendly disposition  – tackling live radio interviews, managing the Honey Show and, alongside Sam, producing honey made by the Martineau Gardens’ bees. All the best to Ray.

Photocredits: Nos 1,4: Lynsay Smith; 2: Felicity McCabe and 3: S Hill-Daniel

 


Joyce Rimmer March 1, 2020

Snowdrops in the Courtyard Garden

The Gardens are waking up again with the approach of the new season. People keep these Gardens going, there are so many who share their time, knowledge and support with us and so it is with sadness we learned of the passing of Joyce Rimmer, a much-loved supporter of Martineau Gardens for many years.

Caroline Hutton (former Director of Martineau Gardens) said:
Joyce  provided us with the beginning of how to communicate with funders and supporters about what Martineau Gardens did with our volunteers.  It was radical and authentic.  She spent time with the volunteers, watched how the staff behaved and listened to what the volunteers said.  She wrote in a professional, yet immediate way which shared the quality of what was happening.  There were no forms, no attempt to struggle through the difficulties of how words mean different things depending on the context, your tone or accent.  We sent the report to funders for as meany years as we could.  
The history of Martineau Gardens is peppered with people who used their intelligence, skills and empathy for the benefit of the land and the people connected with it.  Thank you Joyce.
Stewart Holmes (Therapeutic Horticulturalist for Martineau Gardens) said:
‘One of the most gentle people I’ve ever met, gentle but quietly knowledgeable – she knew what was going on, she knew how this place worked, she was very intuitive about what happened here and understood the value of what we did’

Obituary

Published in March 2020 in The Guardian,  is an obituary to Joyce Rimmer, written by Rachel Baird. Click here to read this in full:

Moth news February 2, 2020

Thanks to the dedication of our wildlife volunteers, Brian and Andrew Martineau Gardens has an impressive list of moth species identified—the total now stands at 398 – almost 400! We normally find at least ten new species each year, so we should easily reach 400 this year.

 


Lending a hand December 11, 2019

A team of community spirited staff from Avinson Young spent a full day at Martineau Gardens recently, volunteering their time, as part of their Day of Giving. The team worked hard indoors and outdoors helping to spruce up the Gardens. They painted the Pavilion interior, chipped wood and then refurbished woodland paths with the chippings and a huge amount of hardcore was barrowed into the keder house, our new growing space in the Pavilion Garden.

We appreciate all the hard work and the friendliness of them team who spent the day with us.

There are a range of ways your company can make an impact in our local community though supporting Martineau Gardens, we welcome partnerships. Click here to find out more.


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