Preston Montford

Shropshire/Welsh Border

Preston Montford Sensory Garden

A sensory garden for children with disabilities is under construction at Preston Montford Field Centre.

A diagram depicting how the garden will look after development

The scheme forms part of an EU funded project run by FSE Environmental Education called “ Increasing access to Environmental Education for Young People with Disabilities”

The main outcomes of this project will be

  1. Training manuals and courses on working with people with disabilities and Education for Sustainable Development
  2. A series of lesson plans of various Environmental Education activities with guidelines on how to best deliver these for people with different disabilities
  3. A micro project to increase access to new learning facilities for people with disabilities (the Sensory Garden scheme)

The project is being run in conjunction with Severndale School in Shrewsbury , which is a special school catering for a broad range of pupils with severe learning difficulties, physical disabilities, profound and multiple learning difficulties, multi-sensory impairment, autism and epilepsy. It will be a place where the pupils can come and learn about the environment, help with the planting or just play.

The garden will be designed to stimulate the senses, using especially fragrant or tactile plants and features that the kids can interact with and use for learning, such as a raised pond and pathways that double as a giant board game.

The school will be involved throughout the project, including planning meetings, developing materials, commenting and providing feedback and helping with construction.

There is a small budget for the project but some big ideas, so we have been asking local suppliers for good deals on materials for construction.


What’s been happing so far…?

patch of rough grass near our willow classroom

  • The garden before development began.

    diggers to make the footings for the path

  • The area started life as a patch of rough grass near our willow classroom
  • Then we got the diggers in to make the footings for the path

 

The area after the diggers left

  • We have now added the hardcore and concrete for the 120m path. This means that the whole area is accessible by wheelchair!

 

Working hard to level the path

  • A team of 10 people worked solidly for 5 days to install the pathway.

 

The foundation from Baystone Hill Quarry

  • Hardcore from Baystone Hill quarry provided the foundation for the path

A lorry full of concrete for the pathway

  • Concrete arrives... We had 4 lorries arriving over 4 days of construction.
  • Many thanks go to Tarmac Western for their generous discount on concrete.


A Mini Dumper tipping wet concrete

  • Giant wheelbarrows called mini dumpers helped move the concrete onsite.

 

  • Teamwork! (And some spade leaning)

The concrete path to make the garden accessible for wheelchairs

  • The almost finished path

The Sensory Garden path

  • The almost finished path.

 

The elements in the garden have yet to be decided, but they could include some sensory planted areas, a raised pond, raised podiums for wheelchair accessible inspection trays, different textures of pathway, different textures and shapes to feel, interactive water installation, landscaping and planting to encourage exploration.

Sound

  • Wind chimes
  • Water – cycle or hand powered pump/Archimedes screw/bamboo waterfall
  • Button operated tape recordings
  • Whispering sound tube

Touch

  • Tree barks
  • Textured plants
  • Animals cast in plaster/concrete

Smell

  • Herbs and other smelly plants

Vision

  • 3D site plan
  • large 3D leaves in wood
  • Magnifying glasses

 

There is much to do, but with staff onsite mucking in and children coming along when the weather is warmer – we think we might just get there.

We can’t wait until it is finished, although this is just the start. With the school involvement, this is a project that will continue to develop and improve year by year.

If anybody has any advice or experience in this area that they would like to share with us, please contact us at the Field Centre, we would welcome any input!

We would like to thank the following companies for their generosity in terms of time and materials provided at very reasonable cost!

 

  • Hewden Plant Hire, Shrewsbury for the digger for path footings
  • Berwyn Quarry, Telford and Bayston Hill Quarry, Shrewsbury for hardcore aggregate
  • Tarmac Western, Kington for concrete
  • Pink Skips, Telford for wood for shuttering, bricks and a big blue pipe!
  • Bright Landscapes, Montford. Ed Bright for working with us on site, driving machinery and making us laugh!

If you would like more information about the project, or can help us out in any way, please get in touch. Caroline Cook and Lisa Johnsey

carolinecook.pm@field-studies-council.org