New Fencing in Ashford Memorial Gardens

Ashford Council is installing a new, secure fence around the whole of the Memorial Gardens to help improve security and the overall appearance.

This work will be starting on Monday 14 February and will start at our Baby Garden.

To allow this, the hedge at the back of our Garden, behind our name tiles, has been removed this week and a temporary fence put up.

The hedge will then be replaced with fresh privet which will look far nicer than the existing hedge which is full of ivy and all sorts of other invasive plants.

There will be no costs to us and the Baby Garden will remain accessible to everyone.

Thank you to Ashford Lions

Back in December a group of our volunteers joined the Ashford Lions to assist Santa on two evenings of his sleigh tour of Ashford!

The donations received during these events benefit a range of local charities, and last week, our volunteers Chris and Chris had a lovely evening with Ashford Lions, collecting a cheque for £330 from the donations received.

Thanks to the Lions for organising this annual event, and for all the support they give to local charities such as ours throughout the year, and to all those of you who donated to Santa's fundraising.

Canterbury Hospital Baby Cemetery

Not many people knew that hidden at the back of Canterbury Hospital was a baby cemetery, with almost 100 babies buried, right up to around 2003 when the Hospital's maternity services closed.

The cemetery is right at the back of the hospital site, with access via the path next to the Supportive Therapies buildings, just before you reach Nackington Road.

Sadly the cemetery had been neglected, with fences down, a very muddy access path and a general air of untidiness.

Following pressure from our charity, the hospital trust has made some great improvements and the cemetery is now far nicer, and safer, than it was, with new fencing, a general tidying up, and a new access path.

We were delighted to present a custom made bench to the Trust and formally handed this over to Tricia Hill, Hospital Chaplain at the Hospital, in lovely sunshine.

Thanks to the Trust for listening to us and, more importantly, for making the area a really lovely and appropriate place to remember 100 of our very special babies.