Gardening Group

The Friends have an active but small gardening group who hold regular “Work together” days usually the 3rd Saturday Morning of the month from 09:00am at Sowerby Bridge Railway Station and may involve weeding, tidying up the station, planting or watering the flower boxes etc. If you enjoy a bit of cultivating and have a few hours to spare, please join us, volunteers are always welcome see Calendar for when the next get together is. They have won numerous awards with Yorkshire in Bloom and Open Spaces since the inception of the group (see Awards). This year 2024 we have achieved a Gold Award from Yorkshire in Bloom (see here for the judges comments).

Latest Update

The Gardening Group over the weekend of October 22nd and 23rd 2022 has undertaken the bi-annual change over of the plants from summer to winter plants.

The Gardening Group over the weekend of May 21st and 22nd 2022 has undertaken the bi-annual change over of the plants from winter to summer plants.

In the past the Group has also under taken bigger projects such as the installation of a Welcome Stone.

The creation of the ‘Brontë Garden’

We began work in April 2013, to convert an area of wasteland near the entrance to the station car park into a ‘Brontë Garden’.  The initial landscaping was completed by R S Groundworks (Barkisland) and the area is now occupied by three large raised flower beds, lower garden type beds, a lawned area and gravel pathway.

The beds will be planted with a range of shrubs and plants mentioned in the works of the Brontë family, including roses, verbena, nasturtiums, pinks, phlox, lilies and many others.

We are hoping that this will provide an educational experience for visitors and highlight the connection with Branwell Brontë, who was the first Assistant Stationmaster at Sowerby Bridge.  We are also have a large centrepiece for the garden  and benches which provide a haven of peace and tranquillity.

The ‘Brontë Garden’ was an ambitious project and we are grateful to the support of Community First for providing us with the initial funding. The garden continues to be developed and provides a unique, educational and sustainable feature of our station, to be enjoyed by all visitors. It now includes a stone bird bath, a number of bird nesting boxes and feeders as well as a hedgehog hotel.