New baby memorial garden opens in Thatcham offering grieving families a quiet space for reflection

Thatcham Town Council opened its long-awaited new baby memorial garden at London Road Cemetery on Wednesday (April 30).

And it hopes the area will give families who have lost children a space for quiet reflection.

Thatcham Town Council’s deputy town clerk and cemetery & allotments manager Laura Carlin said the project had been a “long time coming.”

She added: “It’s taken the town council two years to raise the money required to finish the project, which was so needed here.

“I am hoping it will be somewhere for friends and family to come and have peace and absolute privacy.”

Mayor of Thatcham Suzanne Adamantos said: “Thank you to Laura and all the officers for all their hard work.

“It looks really beautiful. Well done everyone that was involved.”

The garden includes a memorial bay to the left of the current allocated ‘baby section’ and a memorial garden to the right, featuring a teddy bear-themed pedestal, funded by Hampshire Hospitals Charity Forget Me Not Fund.

Parents can apply through Thatcham Town Council to add the names of their lost children to plaques.

For Thatcham mothers like Gemma Hutt, who lost her two sons in 2012, the garden is a sacred place.

Sharing her reaction at the unveiling, she told newburytoday: “It's a place of safety and protection for me.

“I know even though they're not with us, I can come here with my thoughts.

“The biggest thing is that they're not forgotten, that they're still very much alive, even though they're not with us.”

She added the space was a “big improvement” on what was there before.

The idea for the garden started after stillbirth and neonatal death charity West Berkshire SANDS Group approached the town council in 2017.

Fundraising began but was stalled after the local SANDS Group closed and the pandemic followed.

It then resumed under the guidance of the town council, which received generous support from local parents, the Greenham Trust, JB Groundcare, Peter Baker Grants, MJ Sly Memorials, Rivar Sand & Gravel and Sands West Berkshire volunteers.

Thatcham Pharmacy also held a charity day, local parents Mel and Dave Pottinger completed the Reading Half Marathon and Kennet School selected the project as their Year 10 fundraising initiative.

A pivotal moment came in December 2023, when the central Sands Group transferred the funds originally raised, giving the project fresh momentum.

By the end of 2024, the town council had the remaining funds it needed to bring the garden to life.