Promotional Feature
The King's School celebrated its historic ties with the monarchy by opening The King Charles III Coronation Garden.
Featuring a metal sphere beautifully crafted from recycled horseshoes, with shrubbery and bedding plants in a red, white and blue colour scheme, the new garden has been designed in the shape of the globe and represents King Charles' worldwide concerns and passion for the environment.
Located on the public footpath that skirts the school grounds on Alderley Road and illuminated at night, the garden can be enjoyed by the public and has a special plaque detailing its significance.
Designer Rick Astley, King's Assistant Head Groundsman, completed the work to a five-week deadline, not without some drama, discovering two feet of concrete that was just six inches below the surface. "We did encounter one or two problems, but after we removed the concrete we filled in the land with 15 tonnes of top soil and away we went."
"We've used native plants, including lavender and creeping thyme, which we know are part of King's Charles' own gardens.
"The circular shape represents both the globe and the crown, and we have fixed the horseshoe sphere to a recycled old stone gatepost we got from Cheshire Demolition."
Originally founded in 1502 in the Savage Chapel of St. Michael's Parish Church by wealthy Maxonian merchant and the former Lord Mayor of London Sir John Percyvale, the school faced closure in 1547. However, after pleas to the Duke of Northumberland, a political mover and shaker in the government of the boy King Edward VI, it was refounded under a new charter in 1552 as 'the free Grammar School of King Edward VI'', endowed with former monastic lands in Chester and moving to its new home on School Bank, behind the Parish Church, where it remained until 1748.
King's Head of Foundation, Jason Slack said: "Naturally with our history and name, the monarchy is very important to The King's School, as it is to the whole country. We want to sustain and develop those links in a modern and contemporary style, which is appropriate to the new King's concerns for the environment and future generations."
King's Director of External Relations, Caroline Johnson, who commissioned the globe from a sculptor living in Newmarket and therefore easily able to access the hundreds of horseshoes it contains, said: "We hope it reflects the new King's passion for the environment and also his, and his family's, love of equestrianism."
Caroline added: "The plants and flowers have been carefully selected to support pollinators including the bees in the six hives we have at School and further develop the key theme of sustainability."
King's Year 8 pupil Jennie Evans who is part of King's Gardening Club and celebrated her 13th birthday on Coronation Day, said: "It was very sad when the Queen died, but this is a new start and I think the new King will be just as good because as he learned so much from such a wonderful woman."
Alvin Raju, another year 8 pupil with a birthday on May 6 said: "The new King will be a strong leader we can all admire and it's good that the whole nation can come together to have a celebration."
Pictured from left to right at the back are Head Groundsman Carl McCormack, Head Jason Slack and Caroline Johnson. At the front are pupils Jennie Evans and Alvin Raju, either side of garden designer Rick Astley.
