Leonard Cheshire Memorial Gardens in Selborne, Hampshire

27 January 2009

Graduate Landscapes have just put the finishing touches to the Leonard Cheshire memorial gardens in Selborne Hampshire. The world famous organisation started its first centre here in the grounds of what was then the house of Sir Leonard Cheshire who received a VC for his exploits after the war. Gradually the organisation outgrew the site and moved on to a new location while the old house was demolished and is now up for sale.  The garden was retained and re-designed in a tiered structure, the focal point being a shallow pool and a solid granite memorial stone with an inscription to the service men and women who served their country so well. Graduate started the works in January 2008 and quickly cleared the site, being careful to retain a certain number of structural shrubs and memorial stones that were on site.

A small outhouse was re built with flint and reroofed while many metres of low walling was either replaced or rebuilt with flints and lime mortar. The sculpture shown in the picture opposite was produced in metal from a local artist while the intricate block work was all fired in the area. We had to take special care with the placing of the monolith, a 5 tonne brute of hewn Cornish granite, which had to be craned in and placed on a plinth. My colleague Tony Burns was left with the arduous task of positioning it carefully without getting any of his extremities caught! Experience is everything and Tony brought and placed small ice cubes on top of the plinth allowing him to extricate the strapping holding the monolith before the ice melted and the block fell into place.

The garden was open by Leonard Cheshire's daughter Elizabeth Cheshire in late summer 2008 and Graduate Landscapes have the wonderful task of keeping the garden in top condition for the visitors who are visiting the garden from all over the world. The area is open to the public all year round and can be found off the road between Greatham and Selborne.