The Settlers Historical Garden at Stanwick Lakes
Over the last eighteen months we have designed, built and developed a garden at Stanwick Lakes to showcase what previous Settlers in this area would have grown and how they would have used the plants – from the Stone Age to Medieval times. All the plants we’ve grown are as authentic as possible to the region and historical period.
During this time we have built a strong team of ten volunteers who help in the garden every week – unless the weather was really bad!
Lockdown has meant that Stanwick Lakes, its visitors centre and car park have had to be closed so most of the Settlers team and volunteers cannot visit.
Luckily, our volunteer garden manager Hilary lives within walking distance and is able to visit the garden once or twice a week to keep it watered and tidy. During her visits she also has the opportunity to talk to the local visitors about the garden, plants and the Settlers project. So we have been able to keep the project alive even during lockdown.
Keeping in touch with our lovely volunteers has been critical (making sure they return after lockdown as we couldn’t do it without them), so we have a very active WhatsApp group where we share pictures of the garden and email them weekly updates with new photographs. We can’t wait to welcome them and all our visitors back into the garden once we are through this challenging time.
Settlers supporting the FareShare Project
FareShare Go is part of an incredible UK wide network, working to distribute food to as many vulnerable people as possible.
Some of the Settlers team are volunteering to support this amazing initiative, helping to distribute food to some of the most vulnerable people in the Nene Valley region. Making up food boxes for individual households and supplying food to a number of Care Homes and Homeless shelters. We are also working with Peterborough Collage and Jim from Café@25 in Irthlingbourgh who amazingly make up 100’s of meals each week and delivering them to the most at risk people and families in our region.