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Press Release August 2000
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Press Release 1st August 2000

New Quiet Garden opens at Worth Abbey

Hard work by monks and volunteers to clear and restore an overgrown area in the grounds of Worth Abbey have clearly paid off.

The result is a new Quiet Garden offering visitors a tranquil spot to rest, to think and to pray.

Up until now, only visitors to the Abbey or local residents walking their dogs, knew the secrets of Worth Abbey's newly-landscaped Quiet Garden, with its pond, abundant wildlife and attractive flowers.

But this is set to change. The Abbey wants to make the garden accessible to more people. Plans to use the site to host some special events are also being considered. The first of these will be next year when the National Association of Flower Arranging Societies (NAFAS) use the grounds of Worth Abbey and School for their annual flower show, on June 1st - 3rd (2001). Proceeds will go to St. Catherine's Hospice in Crawley, West Sussex.

Worth Abbey, in West Sussex, is a Benedictine Monastery housed in a large Victorian house, set in 500 acres, with views extending to the South Downs.

The property was once owned by Lord Cowdray and photographs from 1891 show just the pond and a small rockery. But over the years waterfalls, bridges, and a boat house were added.

Benedictine monks bought the estate in 1933. Periodically, the gardens have been cleared. In the 1970s the Sussex Trust for Nature Conservation recommended planting a tree with overhanging branches on the pond island to attract kingfishers. Among the wildlife using the pond are goldfish, newts, frogs, moorhens and mallards, grass snakes, wagtails and bats.

Worth Abbey is now an affiliated member of the Quiet Garden Trust, an organisation which encourages the setting up of local venues for rest and prayer.

Father Patrick Fludder, Church Administrator at Worth, says: 'The spiritual use of gardens is becoming popular throughout the world. Many visitors to the abbey and residents around the estate have come to appreciate the improved amenity. The Quiet Garden is a very tranquil spot which we hope will be enjoyed by even more visitors.'

For more information contact:

Father Patrick Fludder, Worth Abbey, Turners Hill, Crawley, West Sussex RH10 4SB

• Tel: 01342 710316
• Fax: 01342 710311
• e-mail: pfludder@worth.org.uk
• web address: http://www.worth.org.uk/

or

Mrs. Jackie Lock, Administrative Director, The Quiet Garden Trust, Stoke Park Farm, Park Road, Stoke Poges, Bucks SL2 4PG

• Tel: 01753 643050
• Fax: 01753 643081
• e-mail: quiet.garden@ukonline.co.uk
• web address: http://web.ukonline.co.uk/members/quiet.garden

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Contact: Patricia Lotery/Fiona Davis-Coleman

• Tel: 020 8876 4242
• Fax: 020 8876 8900
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Jesus said to them, "Come away with me. Let us go alone to a quiet place and rest for a while." (Mark 6:31)