Centenary time capsule buried in the New Forest

This week, we introduced a new kind of richness to Furzey Gardens’ soil in the form of a tiny time capsule.

It has been buried to mark the end of the garden’s centenary year, and to serve as a reminder to the future of how special this place truly is.

The small time capsule contains precious items from people with learning disabilities, who are supported in the gardens and beyond to improve their happiness and health. Items include a small fairy chair created in a woodworking workshop in Minstead Lodge, the charity’s headquarters.

As well as tiny furniture, the pod also serves as a container for three other special objects, including a lead label made in the early 1930s by a gardener at Furzey Gardens. The label will have been used to mark flowers around the garden, and also contains the initial of the gardener who made it.

Other items include pictures and written memories from people who have benefited from the gardens over the past hundred years. One memory included is from one of the charity’s early leaders, Martin Lenaerts; he writes of the earlier days of the training trust at Furzey Gardens, which grew from its roots into today’s 220 staff members, supporting over 270 people with learning disabilities: ‘One of the things I learnt… is that it’s not the difference between where someone started and where they ended up, or where they were, the journey of progression, the distance travelled, it was more about how they got there.’

The charity’s ambition is for the gardens to be thriving for many more decades to come; to help many more hundreds, even thousands, of people with learning disabilities, to welcome families and individuals to its tranquil space, and to continue to serve as a staple of the New Forest.

It is up to future Furzey Gardens’ staff to unearth the time capsule and to uncover the memories of people from the gardens at this moment in time. In the future the charity are certain that this little pod of history will bring joy, and serve as a reminder to preserve this precious place.

You can find out more about the items included here: https://www.youtube.com/shorts/PaUYVYxlilA