College Students Transform St Edmund’s Garden

St Edmund’s Catholic Church in Bury St Edmunds is preparing to open its grounds to the public next year as part of the Hidden Gardens fundraiser in aid of the local hospice.

Thanks to the generosity and hard work of students from West Suffolk College, an important step towards that goal has already been achieved.

Behind the church lies a large and much-loved garden, set within the presbytery grounds and tended by parish volunteers. However, a low retaining wall had long been a concern: unstable, unsafe, and well beyond the parish’s limited maintenance budget. With no funds available for repair, the Parish Pastoral Council feared it might jeopardise their plans to participate in the charitable open-garden scheme.

Help arrived in an unexpected and very welcome form. Students from the building department at West Suffolk College, accompanied by their tutor, offered to take on the project as part of their training. During December, the team carefully dismantled the failing structure and rebuilt the entire wall free of charge, using mostly reclaimed bricks supplied by the parish.

Maree Reilly, Secretary of the Parish Pastoral Council, expressed the parish’s gratitude. She said that the students and their tutor had come to the parish’s rescue and that their skill, enthusiasm and generosity had transformed not only the wall but the whole feel of the garden. She added that the parish was very grateful for their support.

The newly restored wall now stands ready to welcome visitors when St Edmund’s joins other local gardens in supporting hospice care next year, an uplifting example of community collaboration and the goodwill that thrives within the Diocese of East Anglia.

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