Lionhearted group: How volunteers are rejuvenating Ickleton Lion pub garden

In our fourth edition of an update from the community pub campaign, we’re discussing all things green with Lizzie Molloy and her team of garden volunteers, who have big plans....

With spring in the air and new shoots of life emerging throughout the Ickleton Lion, we’re taking some time to share what's going on outside and in the garden - always a crucial part of a village pub. While there's been many a grimace inside the building recently, the garden is also in desperate need of rejuvenation, with two years of neglect leaving it less pub garden, more pub jungle.

South facing, the garden unfolds from the rear of the pub in a rather uniform square. There’s limited access, with the pub car park alongside and the village hall and playground at the back. And it’s on this blank canvas that we’re beginning to work. The narrow path from the back door will, in time, become a broader patio seating area – a real sun trap in the making – and an easy access slope up onto the grass will ensure a safe and welcoming place for all.

The desire to welcome all visitors great and small has been central to everything we want to do. A north easterly wall will house a wildflower strip and some bug and bee hotels – accommodation for visitors who’ve had a little too much amber nectar. We’ll also create screened composting areas as we move towards a self-sustainable pub and garden.

There’ll be a new pergola, and sleep deprived parents will be able to relax happily next to a children’s area with a self-led play design – think mud kitchens, nature trails and wooden toadstools. The garden is already fortunate to have its own Petanque court (quite a rarity) that we plan to restore. As the pub is on National Cycle Route 11, we’ve also been in talks with local cycling groups to properly provide for those on two wheels.

Plant wise, there’s so much we’d love to do to establish a bright and colourful cottage garden. While we’re saving as much as we can from what’s there now, we want new evergreen shrubs to add year-round depth and shade in a newly dug bed (in the shape of a lion’s tail!).

Along the old flint wall to the car park we hope to run trailing roses on a rope swag. We’ll need drought tolerant pollinators, with well positioned herb beds to complement the kitchen.

As we approach an opening date we’ll be looking to adorn the entire surround of the pub with vibrant hanging baskets as a clear sign that the Lion is back in business.

Sultry afternoons spent to the sounds of leather on willow from the nearby cricket pitch; a social natter on a weekday afternoon over lunch, or a pint with friends and family beneath the streaming colours of the Red Arrows on a Duxford airshow day – it’ll all make for a rather idyllic scene. But there’s plenty of work to do and as with the pub restoration, our funds are somewhere between non-existent to none.

We have a team of volunteers who’ve already got stuck into the worst of the weeds in the garden and car park (which we’d like to thank Urban & Civic for fencing off at handover). But we’re really hopeful for some extra help. Maybe a local garden centre could sponsor and provide the hanging rope roses or some shrubs across the garden, or a local DIYer could make some mud kitchens or bug hotels?

Perhaps we could even find a generous benefactor for the restoration of the Petanque court or to provide the hanging baskets? If you can help, please get in touch. These contributions will play such an important role in making the pub garden the heart of the village again, and we’re so excited to watch things develop and grow.