These are two areas of the gardens at the rear of the main Priory building accessed from the main lawn via The Spears Bridge. The Friends have contributed to recent repainting of the Spears Bridge which is now black.
The Friends Garden is an area for quiet contemplation. It has a paved sunken area, wall planter and a metal bench dedicated to John Hovell.
The Berm is a small area of river planting below the wall facing the bridge access to Ware Bowls Club. It was created from the silt dredged as part of environmental work to improve the flow in the river and is planted with native water plants.
The Friends Garden
The Friends Garden
The planting and condition in the Friends Garden is constantly under review. In early 2022 we are hoping to re-lay the paving and rebuild the enclosing walls which have unfortunately suffered from some vandalism in 2021.
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The Berm
The Berm has had some maintenance in 2021. A group of volunteers known as "The Wednesday Volunteers" carried out some remedial work for us which included reducing the Flag Irises, which gave a lovely display but do spread to the detriment of other plants if not controlled from time to time. There are still plenty remaining and we have added some other native plants including Marsh Marigold, Ragged Robin and Purple Loosestrife, and will consider adding more once we can see how these have established.
The "Volunteers" also cleared some of the rubbish from the river including a child's scooter and traffic cones!
