Dementia Awareness Week garden party held at Thatcham Platinum Jubille Sensory Garden

Ukulele music and laughter filled the Jubilee Sensory Garden in Thatcham last week.

A garden party was held on Friday, May 19, by Age UK Berkshire for Dementia Action Week.

Residents came together at the sensory space on Brownsfield Road, to enjoy cake, music and chair dancing.

The garden was opened in October last year with the intention of creating a dementia friendly sensory space.

It holds multiple sensory components from flowers of multiple colours and scents and fruits and vegetables, to places to sit for a quiet escape, a path to wander down and even a bug garden.

The plants were specially selected to provoke senses and memories with “old fashioned” flowers like Granny’s Bonnet and Pincushion chosen.

It was designed by gardener of 30 years Sally Mitchel who maintains the space, growing vegetables which are available to take at the town council offices and tending to the flowers.

She said: “We have old fashioned plants that people would remember from their childhoods.

“Everything is to do with provoking conversations about things they maybe did in years gone by.

“It is all on flat ground so there is access and plenty of room for wheelchairs with no trip hazards.

“There is a lovely and calm walking woodland space and we are bringing in wildlife so people can stop and take a moment with it.”

Thatcham mayor and mayoress Mark and Jenny Lillycrop said the garden is a space to revive old memories through the scents of these flowers, have a wander and relax in a secluded but easily accessible space.

Reading based ukulele group Riverside Jukes were in attendance, bringing their own sensory component – music.

“Music is really important for people with dementia,” said member Dave Stewart.

“We hook onto people’s different memories and you can see people literally come alive when they hear songs they know and recognise.

“It is the best thing, we come away from these things with a big grin on our faces.”

Age UK Berkshire services manager Nicky Smith was in attendance for Dementia Friendly West Berkshire and said it was lovely to see the benefits first-hand.

She said: “There are lots of different scents in the garden and people are using their memories, they are remembering what they once had in their gardens and they are seeing new things and asking about them.

“So it is stimulating their brains well so it’s really nice.”