Gospels garden on Lindisfarne
Date: 2004-02-21, Publication: The Journal
Visitors to last years Chelsea Flower Show sang the praises of a garden devoted to the Lindisfarne Gospels.
The reaction persuaded its creator Stan Timmins to try to ensure that the end of the show would not mean the end of the garden concept.
Now Stan is to re-create a more permanent version of the garden on Holy Island off the Northumberland coast.
Stan, who is principal grounds officer for Newcastle City Council, designed the garden based on the Gospels at his Jesmond Dene plant nursery headquarters.
Stan, 57, will be leaving his job with the council at the end of next month after 30 years to concentrate on teaching, and the local authority has seconded him to Holy Island so that he can begin work on his dream.
The Chelsea garden was dominated by a 12ft Celtic cross decorated with flowers and also featured a floral statue of St Aidan and four Canon Tables creating a screen, each representing one of the four evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Stan, who lives in High Heaton in Newcastle, collaborated with the British Library on the garden design.
It won a silver award and also featured on BBC TVs Songs of Praise programme.
Now Stan has started work on his gospel garden on a former allotment plot opposite Holy Island heritage centre.
Initially it will include some of the Chelsea items but the longer-term aim is to involve the local community, craftsmen and artists in creating more permanent features.
Stan plans to translate the Lindisfarne Gospels illustrations by the scribe Eadfrith into garden displays, with specially designed furniture, flower beds and mosaics.
The garden will reflect the roles of regional leaders such as Oswald, Aidan, Cuthbert and the Venerable Bede through a sequence of wooden structures in a flower border.
There will be circles of contemplation, plants chosen for their sensory qualities such as touch and fragrance, disabled access, a central stone box, and a Celtic-design gate with the gospel text Love One Another.
The scheme was given an enthusiastic welcome by islanders at a recent public meeting and Stan will be working with the Holy Island Development Trust.
He will also be helped by Jim Madden, who was his former teacher at Heworth Secondary Modern School in Gateshead.
Jim acted as religious adviser for the Chelsea garden and will do so again on Holy Island.
Stan says: "I wanted to take the idea of the Chelsea garden further but it is going to have to withstand the rigours of the island weather.
"I got lots of satisfaction from the Chelsea project in which we used around 50,000 plants."
Dick Patterson, 59, was born on the island where he is the part-time postman and also helps run a bed and breakfast and tea shop business with wife Pauline.
He is also chairman of the Holy Island Development Trust which was set up in 1995 to tackle the lack of affordable homes for islanders and has now built five homes for young local families.
The trusts heritage centre, based in what was a disused hotel, already features a facsimile and electric turn-the-page versions of the Gospels.
"The Chelsea garden was excellent, and the garden on the island should be like a little oasis in the village," says Dick.
"It will link in with the priory, the Gospels, and heritage centre. Hopefully the garden will educate people about the Gospels."
The project is being backed by the city council but other sponsors would be welcome. Back to Articles | 
