Tarmac’s Mountsorrel Quarry has helped a local Women’s Institute (WI) restore a living memory to Princess Diana, with a donation to help maintain a memorial garden in Quorn, Leicestershire.
During the winter lockdown, several members of the Quorn Evening WI noticed that the memorial garden could benefit from some attention, thinking it would be nice to take on its replanting and maintenance as a WI Community based project, particularly with the unveiling of the statue at Kensingston Place to commemorate what would have been Princess Diana’s 60th birthday.
After obtaining permission from Quorn Parish Council, the group approached Mountsorrel Quarry for a donation towards the planting, and they were happy to oblige.
Lorna Williams, secretary of the Quorn Evening WI, said: “We are very grateful to Tarmac for their donation which has gotten us off to a great start with the garden.
“The team working on the garden had a great time clearing and preparing the garden for the replanting. We have a couple of keen and knowledgeable gardeners in the group who have put together a plant list that will bring all round interest to the garden, with a colour scheme of mainly greens and white with some lavender, which we felt best represented the subtle colours Princess Diana liked. These are also the colours of the WI movement founded in 1915, their nod to the Suffragette movement.”
Trevor Warren, works manager at Mountsorrel Quarry, said: “We are pleased to have been able to help the Quorn Evening WI with this project in the memory of Princess Diana. We are looking forward to seeing how it develops over the coming years.”
Some of the initial planting of the garden has already been done, with spring flowering bulbs already ordered for planting later this year.
The group also received funding from the Quorn Evening WI to help with the project and have agreed to maintain the garden for the next three years.
