Hungerford Tragedy Garden Project – History and Completion

Historical background and completion of project: In 1987 a local man went berserk and shot dead sixteen people in and around Hungerford before taking his own life. Money was raised to commemorate the victims and a small site  was dedicated to their memory. A rose bush was planted for each victim, with other trees and shrubs, but after twentu plus years many of these plants were dead or struggling.

A chance meeting between the Chairman of the Association of Gardens Trusts at our 2009 launch (Gilly Drummond) and the then Mayor of Hungerford (Elizabeth Cardwell) set the ball rolling. Bettina Kirkham came up with a brilliant innovative design, Hungerford Town Council came up with Section 106 funding for the plants and materials, and the Berkshire Probation Service came up with free labour for the heavy work under their Community Payback Scheme.

Young offenders-generally eight at a time – worked with us on Phases One to Three, clearing the site, removing paving, re-turfing and erecting new fencing, painting existing fencing and so on; Phases Four and Five provided opportunities for BGT members to install the new planting.