Community Garden’s Lucy gets an honour!

Lucy Mitchell from the Golden Hill Community Garden has been awarded with the British Empire Medal in the 2023 New Year’s honours’ list for services to the community.

When asked about her award, Lucy said she was ‘quite surprised’ to receive such an honour from the King, and she admits she had to think about accepting it as she is a “grumpy republican”. She also missed the original letter as she was ill at home with Covid when it arrived. “ I got phoned up by the Cabinet Office two weeks before Christmas asking me if I knew about it and what did I want to do about it. It was quite flattering although it’s not what the garden is about. It’s a community project so it was strange they picked out one person.”

Lucy mused about wearing her medal in the Community Garden at all times, but then added  “it’s a collective thing – we share our victories and triumphs so we’ll have it pinned up somewhere.”

Lucy, who featured in an article in the Guardian Newspaper in 2021, has been the project worker on the Community Garden since 2011, when the Community Garden was set up along with several raised beds, polytunnels and walkways for a variety of local groups to use.