The Sensory Garden, (formerly Coronation Garden) was previously St Mary’s Church Burial Ground and is located on North Bar Within (that’s a street name) Beverley, East Yorkshire. ( sat nav use post code HU17 8DG | global co-ordinates 53.844547, -0.435567 )
The gates are locked closed over night, the closing time varies with the seasons.
The Coronation Garden was constructed to commemorate the Coronation of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in 1953 and was completed in 1955.
On the fiftieth anniversary of it’s opening in 2005 an area was created as a Sensory garden. Trees, shrubs, plants and grasses were chosen that are aromatic, or have leaves that rustle in a breeze, some textured with a strange feel to the touch, a particular range of colours plus the sound of trickling water from the new waterfall feature all combine to appeal to the senses.
The garden is very popular and is well used, especially in the summer months and it is always well maintained by the East Riding of Yorkshire Council.
There are many seats available in the sensory garden, all in good condition and usually clean. Sit in the sunshine, in shade under a tree, in relative privacy in a Bower or under a Pergola or sit on the wall around the gentle trickling waterfall.
In 2003 a portion of the garden was designed and planted as a Field of Hope by the children of St Mary’s Primary School and members of The Beverley Support Group for Marie Curie Cancer Care.
When the old St Mary’s Graveyard was restructured as the Coronation Garden, the Headstones were moved to the sides of the area, allowing for easier grass mowing and no restrictions on the layout of pathways, borders, beds and shrubberies.
The rear part (western end) of the Coronation Sensory Garden remains a burial ground with all the original undisturbed graves. There are a full range of grave markers, including upright headstones, flat headstones, memorial plaques and kerbed headstones (ledger markers usually covering the whole grave). A few of the pathways between graves are mown grass but generally this graveyard is allowed to return to nature to the benefit of wildlife.