Local residents, Councillors and the ATownExploresABook team gather to announce the good news for Gensing Gardens. Photograph © Alexander Brattell

Good news for Gensing Gardens

On Friday 25 March, local residents, Councillors and the ATownExploresABook team gathered to mark the 150th anniversary of Gensing Gardens. HOT’s Erica Smith, who is also involved with ATownExploresABook, was there to share the plans for celebration through the spring and summer.

Front of image: ATownExploresABook Lead Artist, Emma Harding

Each April for the past six years, the ATownExploresABook festival team has worked with Hastings Borough Council to install temporary art exhibitions in Gensing Gardens and other public spaces across St Leonards. When the team realised that 2022 would be the 150th anniversary of the Gardens, we started making plans to celebrate.

Gensing Gardens is my local green space and throughout lockdown I was delighted to see how the park came into its own. Despite the times when the children’s playground was closed, the park itself remained constantly busy with people exercising, playing table tennis and football, and picnicking with others in their bubbles.

When we started looking at the themes within this year’s festival book, The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden, we realised that the apple orchard where Kizzy lived with her great-great-gran was an important element of the story, and we sought permission to plant a small apple orchard.

ATownExploresABook mentee, Yasmin Aishah, with one of the apple tree saplings

Working with the council’s tree officer, Chris Wilken, and Sassie Yasamee of Eve Apple Press, we sourced and planted five apple trees – each one a different variety of Sussex apple. The trees were planted in National Tree Week last December – you can read more about it here.

We also applied to the Heritage Lottery Fund for a grant to help celebrate the park and bring the local community together with activities running through the spring and summer, research to develop a tree map, some creative signage and to create a sound trail around the Gardens.

Jake Bowers with a glimpse of his specially commissioned statue of Kizzy Lovell.

Friday’s gathering by the baby apple trees was the first of many events that will happen through 2022. This year’s ATEAB festival will begin in Gensing Gardens with a launch event for the local art created by lead artist Emma Harding with ceramicist Martin Brockman and blacksmith Jake Bowers. Jake has been commissioned to produce a sculpture of Kizzy Lovell – the main character in The Diddakoi. You can see half of Kizzy in this photo with Jake – we don’t want to reveal any more until the launch on Friday!

We were delighted that Councillors Kim Forward, Paul Barnett, Maya Evans and Peter Chowney all attended the launch event. We hope that Jake Bowers’ statue of Kizzy will prove popular with local residents and we can apply for planning permission for it to be installed in the park permanently. The Diddakoi book is set in nearby rural Rother and we would love Gensing Gardens to become the home of the first statue of a child of Romany and Irish heritage.

You are all welcome join us in Gensing Gardens at 4pm on Friday 1 April to mark the opening of the festival. You can follow this link to see the full programme of art and activities running across St Leonards from 1 to 18 April.

Also in: Community Arts