Our New Sensory Dye Garden

After months of hard-work from volunteers, members of our grounds team, and community groups, we are excited to re-open our allotment space in the historic grounds of Compton Verney as a new Sensory Dye Garden!

All of the plants in this beautiful garden have been chosen by the grounds team and natural dye artist Jacqui Symons, to ignite your senses.

Our grounds team, volunteers from NFU Mutual, and members of Leamington Spa Charity, Flourish, all worked hard to plant and cultivate this garden. In particular, Jacqui from Slow Lane Studio worked closely with the girls from Flourish and taught them how to extract natural dyes form the garden’s plants and use them to create environmentally-friendly works of art including a beautiful banner that reads: ‘Girls Flighting Climate Change’.

This banner, which is now part of a display in the garden, was created through a series of workshops with Jacqui that began in Spring 2023 and was initially inspired by the costumes on display in our Making Mischief exhibition. It is a wonderful representation of the vibrant array of plants in the garden and the powerful potential of natural materials to create works of art that don’t harm the environment.

You can come and explore the garden from Tuesday-Sunday, 10am-5pm near the West Lawn.

Find out about our new community access scheme which offers an annual membership to groups who face physical, sensory, psychological, or social barriers visiting Compton Verney independently.