Great Garden Rail Trail to Support St Elizabeth Hospice for Second Year

13 May, 2024

Note: this event is now fully booked

Rail station gardens in Suffolk will join St Elizabeth Hospice’s Great Garden Trail once again this summer to help raise funds for the charity. The hospice has partnered with the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership and train operator Greater Anglia for the Great Garden Rail Trail Tuesday 9 July 2024.

The day starts at Ipswich at 10am with a special tour by train of the East Suffolk Line highlighting the stunning station gardens along the route. The first stop will be at Beccles for a talk by the Suffolk Wildlife Trust and to meet the ‘station adopter’ volunteers who help to look after the floral displays.

Guest can then explore the rest of the line at their leisure using their information guide. The rail tickets enable attendees to hop on and off on the return journey to take in the many delightful stations, towns, and villages along the way; there are some fantastic floral displays at Lowestoft station and the lovely station garden at Westfield as featured on BBC Gardeners World.

Tickets are £17.50 per adult, which includes a £7.50 donation to St Elizabeth Hospice and £5 per child.

Money raised from the Great Garden Trail helps to fund the hospice’s work across East Suffolk, Great Yarmouth and Waveney providing care for families and patients living with life-limiting illnesses.

Kelly Nekrews, Community Fundraiser at St Elizabeth Hospice, said: “We are delighted to be hosting our Great Garden Trail for the tenth year and once again we are thankful for the support of Greater Anglia and East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership.

“The Great Garden Rail Trail is sure to be a fantastic experience which, much like our hospice services, will cover the areas of Ipswich and Lowestoft – with plenty of stunning gardens for participants to enjoy.”

Aaron Taffera, Chair of the East Suffolk Lines Community Rail Partnership, said, “We are delighted to join the Great Garden Trail to help the Hospice continue its valuable work and are grateful to Greater Anglia for offering a special discounted ticket price which we hope will attract lots of people to come on board for what promises to be an excellent and fascinating day out.”

Alan Neville, Greater Anglia’s Customer and Community Engagement Manager, said,

“We are really proud to be supporting St Elizabeth’s Hospice with this very special Great Garden Rail Trail fundraiser event.

“Our Station Adoption initiative, which has just celebrated its 20th year, has led to the development of some amazing station gardens along the rail lines in East Anglia, including the East Suffolk Line, helping stations to look more welcoming and supporting local biodiversity, which we are very proud of.”

To find out more about St Elizabeth Hospice call 01473 723600 or visit www.stelizabethhospice.org.uk.