Published on: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Last updated: Tuesday, 21 May 2024
Suffolk rail station gardens will join St Elizabeth Hospice’s Great Garden Trail this summer to help raise more funds for the charity.
The Hospice has partnered with Greater Anglia and the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership to create the Great Garden Rail Trail event, which will take place on Tuesday 9 July 2024.
Meeting at Ipswich at 10.00, guests will take a special trip by train for a tour of the East Suffolk Line between Ipswich and Lowestoft, highlighting the stunning station gardens that can be found along the route.
The first stop will be Beccles, where there will be a talk by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and a chance to meet the ‘station adopter’ volunteers who help to look after the floral displays.
Guests can then explore the rest of the line at their leisure using their information guides, perhaps visiting the beach at Lowestoft or stopping to admire the gardens at Westerfield station which were recently featured on BBC Gardener’s World.
Tickets will enable attendees to hop on and off on the return journey to take in the delights of other stations, towns, and villages along the way.
Tickets are £17.50 per adult, which includes a £7.50 donation to St Elizabeth Hospice and £5 per child and can be booked here.
Money raised from the Great Garden Trail helps to fund the hospice's work across East Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney providing care for families and patients living with life-limiting illnesses.
Kelly Nekrews, Community Fundraiser at St Elizabeth Hospice, said:
“We are delighted to be host-ing our Great Garden Trail for the tenth year and once again we are thankful for the support of Greater Anglia and East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership.
“The Great Garden Rail Trail is sure to be a fantastic experience which, much like our hospice ser-vices, will cover the areas of Ipswich and Lowestoft – with plenty of stunning gardens for participants to enjoy.”
Aaron Taffera, Chair of the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership, said,
“We are delighted to join the Great Garden Trail to help the Hospice continue its valuable work and are grateful to Greater Anglia for offering a special discounted ticket price which we hope will attract lots of people to come on board for what promises to be an excellent and fascinating day out.”
Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said,
“We are really proud to be supporting St Elizabeth’s Hospice with this very special Great Garden Rail Trail fundraiser event.
“Our Station Adoption initiative, which has just celebrated its 20th year, has led to the development of some amazing station gardens along the rail lines in East Anglia, including the East Suffolk Line, helping stations to look more welcoming and supporting local biodiversity, which we are very proud of.”
Tickets to the annual fundraiser are still available and can be purchased at eastsuf-folklines.co.uk/great-garden-rail-trail-2024
To find out more about St Elizabeth Hospice call 01473 723600 or visit www.stelizabethhos-pice.org.uk.