Volunteers keep Gatton Park's gardens blooming

A volunteer gardener who has helped to keep a historical park up and running for 20 years says appreciation from visitors "makes all the hard work worthwhile", as the park celebrates its volunteers.

Gatton Park, near Reigate in Surrey, has been tended to by volunteers for 30 years, who have helped to garden at the park, assist school visits, and run its open days on the first Sunday of each month.

Helen Seymour, who joined the park team in March 2006, said working in the garden was a "chance to engage with our visitors and realise how much they appreciate being able to enjoy our beautiful landscape gardens".

The park is set to hold a summer party to celebrate the 30-year anniversary.

Seymour, who joined after retiring from her job in retail, said she was "twenty years older and my knees and back aren't quite so keen on weeding but I love getting into the greenhouse sowing seeds and propagating plants for use in the gardens or selling on open days".

The Gatton Park landscape gardens date back to the Edwardian period, and now include a pleasure garden and Japanese garden.

Having fallen into disrepair during World War Two, gardener Pat Pay organised a volunteering group in 1996 from a cottage in the grounds.

Gatton Park's youngest volunteer is 16-year-old Flo, who helps at the park as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award.

She said: "Volunteering at Gatton Park has helped me gain confidence by working with lots of different people."

The Gatton Trust was established in 2001 to help support the garden and its volunteers.

A team of more than 120 volunteers now help to tend the grounds, a trust spokesperson said.

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