Bedfordshire: Army officer restores WW2 'secret garden' at Chicksands Priory

A walled garden in the home of a former top-secret World War Two listening post has been restored by a team of volunteers

An Army officer who restored a walled garden in the home of a former top-secret World War Two listening post has won two government conservation awards.

Capt Vicki Gosling's team cleared the "wilderness" area at Chicksands Priory in Bedfordshire, which is now home to Defence Intelligence.

They uncovered memorial plaques to members of the Y service, operators of secret radio-listening stations.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it was "like finding a secret garden".

Capt Gosling was awarded the Silver Otter Award and the Social Value, Community and Heritage award at the annual Defence Sanctuary Awards, which recognise outstanding conservation and sustainability effort across the MoD estate.

She said the team was "extremely proud and thrilled" and it was a "fantastic testimony" to their commitment.

The site can now be used by the military and local community

Staff at Chicksands Priory intercepted and logged coded enemy transmissions during World War Two, which were sent directly to code-breakers at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire.

Capt Gosling designed a plan and led a team of volunteers to rescue the walled garden at the site, which had become a wilderness due to years of neglect, but can now be used by the military and local community.

Starting in November 2019, the team cleared the site, chopping down waist-high to reveal plaques for the unit of radio operators who worked at listening stations in both the UK and around the world.

"We looked into the archives and found photos of these sometimes quite young recruits enjoying themselves in their free time in the garden," Capt Gosling said.

"We looked at that and thought all those years ago they were enjoying it as a special place - perhaps we can make it like that again."

The project began in November 2019

Allotments have been created using old railway sleepers and vegetable beds have also been restored.

A Black Hamburg vine, there since the 1800s, now has a burgeoning grape crop, and the team plan to produce a Walled Garden Muscat wine to be auctioned to raise further funds.

Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin said: "The judges were impressed with the stunning garden transformation photographs, which were like finding a secret garden.

"The project has great social value, a community project, with heritage, volunteering, wildlife, green space, community well-being and also, not to be forgotten, military benefit."

The area is no longer a "wilderness"

The walls are now a riot of colour