Queen Mother’s Park in the Ashford Green Corridor is now host to some new and exiting sculptures. Funded through a Heritage Lottery Fund grant, the Ashford Green Corridor Project commissioned local greenwood artists Martin Brockman and Mark Sidders, to create sculptures which would capture and convey the history of Queen Mother’s Park from its wild, woodland beginnings, to its present day Local Nature Reserve status.

The sculptures were created using English Oak from Sylvan Environmental Enterprises Ltd woodland and were sculptured in this same woodland at which they were felled. You may have spotted the end results – a host of sculptured native plants and animals, being transported through Ashford on a trailer to their new home in Queen Mother’s Park. Emma Griffiths, the Ashford Green Corridor Officer with the Kentish Stour Countryside Project said "Set into position, the tall structures now stand proudly as a mark of both the site and surrounding area’s history".

Positioned in a triangular format, the first of the three stand-alone sculptures recalls an age when fewer people inhabited the area and elk and wolf roamed freely. Have a look on the reverse side and the elk’s antlers might not be what they first appear! The second tall sculpture represents a herd of cattle, capturing the agricultural phase of the park’s history and the livestock market origins of Ashford. Emma Griffiths, Ashford Green Corridor Officer said that the remaining stand-alone sculpture - "celebrates the present day status of the site as a Local Nature Reserve, with its carvings of those wildlife species the Ashford Green Corridor Officer aims to entice into the park through continuing conservation work". The final piece – a bench made from an oak framework and sweet chestnut seats, evokes memories of the orchard that once stood in this part of Ashford. The bench is not quite yet complete with members of the Ashford North Youth Centre due to participate in a workshop day, where they can design and create their own interpretations on the bench.