Five lovely Polish landscape gardeners have been working full time at Park Pharmacy Trust’s, magical medicinal garden at Thorn Park Lodge for the past four weeks. They are on a European funded project, organised by Tellus College and finish their present assignment on Thursday.
They have followed the original brief of the garden to have small scale charm: the whole is not to be viewed at once by rather to be gradually discovered as detail of the contrasting areas emerge on inspection. Tucked away in the design are places to sit, including two wheel chair bays. The garden is for the use of the community and special provision for people with disabilities is being made. All the materials used in the garden: slates, limestone, shillet, granite are local to the southwest. Features such as boundary walls, internal walls, footpaths, raised beds are being built in traditional design. And the pond has become a haven for an incredible variety of wildlife, including frogs, newts and toads, and the varied invertebrates required for their life cycles. This part of the garden is permanently wet as it traverses the Middle Ditch of Houndiscombe.
A new community group is being formed to use and maintain the garden. The group, Thorn Park Lodge and Garden Community Group has already attracted over 75 names of people (of all ages) who want to become members when the group will be formally launched in September at a public meeting.
News Update: January 2016
Park Pharmacy Trust photos featured in the Plymouth Herald: Click
News Update: June 2015
Mr Park's chemist shop has been donated back to Park Pharmacy Trust. The CJ Park Pharmacy is now back in Plymouth after being kindly donated to us by Mrs Ioana Miller. This generous donation not only includes Mr Park's chemist shop but also hundreds of treasured items that were donated to us for display in the Pharmacy. We are now looking to include the Pharmacy in Plymouth's multimillion pound History Museum, which is set to open in 2020. In the mean time, Park Pharmacy Trust is looking for new home for the Pharmacy and we are hoping that we will have it back on display as soon as possible. Read the full story here!
Park Pharmacy Trust Open Day - 6th of June 10am-4pm
Park Pharmacy Trust will be opening its doors for a day of history, activities and refreshments! Suitable for all ages, this day will be an eye opener into the world of historical medicine. To find out more about this unique event, click here.
News Update: April 2015
On 3 June 2015 work will start on the restoration of the medicinal garden at Thorn Park Lodge with the help of seven conservation volunteers from Plymouth Environmental Action and Plymouth Growing Futures.Read here on how you can get involved!