Children's Garden

Opened in 2008, the Seeds of Hope Children's Garden is a unique garden designed to help children and young people explore feelings of loss of all kinds with the support of their families, teachers, and carers. The loss may be as a result of many different things including death, divorce, adoption, separation, a change of school, because a best friend has moved away or a treasured possession has been lost.

Founder, Caroline Jay: "The aim is to provide a resource to help children and young people explore the feelings they may feel unable to articulate and to enable their friends and classmates to learn more about what they might be going through in order that no young person ends up feeling as isolated as the young boy who told us

the worse thing after my Dad died in the school holidays was going back to my school and nobody saying anything about my Dad, it was like it didn't matter. It did matter and was awful because Mum had told the school. I just didn't want to go to school after that.

The Garden is situated at the east end of the Cathedral and incorporates 4 separate areas, one for each season, together with a bronze sculpture of 2 life-sized children and a labyrinth. With the help of an Activity & Information Pack, children are encouraged to learn about change from the ever-present cycle of life in the Garden. 

The Cathedral has written worksheets for adults (PDF) and children (PDF) to take around the garden.

To organise a children's visit, please refer to the school visits page of this website.