A crowdfunder has been set up by Growing Sudley CIC as part of their ongoing work on reviving the old walled garden at South Liverpool’s Sudley Estate.
If successful, the former council building next to the garden will become a Therapy and Wellbeing Centre with affordable space for therapists and a base for the CIC itself.
The local voluntary group is looking to transform some derelict former changing rooms in Sudley into a low carbon community-owned asset for health, wellbeing and connecting to nature.
The garden is a local hidden gem within a historic site that includes National Museums Liverpool’s Sudley House and a world-class art collection. The House and Estate were bequeathed by the shipping merchant family the Holts ‘for the benefit of the people of Liverpool’, ensuring the protection of the heritage assets from development. The history of the site and its legacy, deeply embedded in colonialism, are set to be explored in an upcoming heritage project.
For now, the volunteer-led community group are focussed on making the project sustainable for the future, environmentally and economically.
Lucy Dossor, co-founder of Growing Sudley CIC said:
“The project grew out of a question asked by the Friends of Sudley Estate, ‘how can we bring the walled garden back into use for the local community?’. Using Social and Therapeutic Horticulture, Forest School, Mind Body Practices, Nature Art and Community Herbalism, our volunteer-led group has tested out ideas to find out what people wanted to happen in the garden. The plan that’s emerged, gradually and organically, is to create a Therapeutic Garden for health, wellbeing and fun through the healing power of nature and plants.”
The changing rooms project is a partnership with Ullet Road Eco Offices, one of South Liverpool’s first major eco-refurbishments. Using a range of renewable systems, the grassroots retrofitted buildings are developing local knowledge and resources to help the region move towards a low carbon-future.
Growing Sudley have funds to regenerate the building and garden, but they don’t include the renewable technology required to make it low carbon. The group have launched the crowdfunder on Liverpool Spacehive to raise the extra costs of making the building green for the future.
Lucy added:
“It’s really important for people to comment and like the crowdfund campaign page, as Liverpool City Council have the discretion to add match funding to the total if they think we have strong community support.”
They will be keeping an eye on the local projects and a small donation and positive comment will really help our campaign, not to mention sharing with friends and on social media.”
You can donate and find out more information via the project’s Spacehive page here: www.spacehive.com/growingsudleyeco
