Homes & gardens Green Seam was inspired by Kent’s coal mining history, which
goes back to 1912. The seams were narrow and deep, making it the most expensive coal produced in the UK. The decision was made to close collieries deemed uneconomic and the last Kent colliery – Betteshanger – was closed in 1989. It was devastating news for 1,500 miners and their families in a rural part of East Kent where job prospects were very limited. The families also lost the medical services and transport links which had been provided by British Coal.
Successive governments, no doubt with the best intentions,
promised regeneration, but nothing of any real significance happened until 2011 when, led by Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, Hadlow College formulated the Betteshanger Sustainable Park Scheme. The scheme, which aims to bring money and jobs into the area, will incorporate a green technology centre, a visitor centre, Kent Mining Museum, a multi-purpose space for conferences and events, a cafeteria and much more.
The Green Seam garden was designed by Bethany Williams
and Stuart Towner, both of whom graduate this year with a BA (Hons) from Hadlow/University of Greenwich. It depicts the transformation of the former colliery into a sustainable park. It shows how pioneer plant species – some of which are rare – can colonise apparently hostile environments such as soil heaps and transform them into places of great beauty. The dark colliery spoil contrasts with the vivid greens and pinks of the plants, and the black seam of coal becomes the green seam of sustainable growth.
Wild strawberries (fragaria veca) grow in abundance at
Betteshanger and the vivid colours of pioneer plants such as rosebay willowherb (chamerion augustifolium) are tempered by the whites and silvers of birches and aspens. Ferns, which were among the plants that originally formed the coal, also feature.
Mid Kent Living readers visiting Green Seam will be given a special welcome, with plenty of opportunity to talk to the designers and gather information and advice.
Here are three local events, if you want to be further inspired or need to know your silver bells from a cockle shell.
July 5
Hernhill Open Gardens, Hernhill, near Faversham.
July 5 & 6
Harty Flower Festival and Country Show at The Ferry House Inn, Harty Ferry Road
September 22 - 27
Festival of Flowers at Leeds Castle
Editorial supplied by Pat Crawford.
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