PETER AND HELEN CUSHING'S SECRET GARDEN: A FEATURE FOR VALENTINES DAY!

      John Harman, British Columbia

                                     Canada remembers Peter and Helen Cushing'sWalled Garden

                           "All through the '30s, my Dad had a large allotment garden down the

     Lower Island (Island Wall). This was located between Island Wall

         and the back of the cottages at the far end of Wave Crest..

        He had a tool shed on it and various things to scare the birds....

      but they did more to frighten me as I was young in the late 1930s.

     My brothers George and Ray, who are quite a bit older than me,

     well remember playing on the mountains of sawdust at the adjacent

 yard of the Whitstable Shipping Co."

                                  

 "In 1963, when I took my wife, Anne, home to Whitstable to meet

my family, we stayed with mom and dad. Dad told me that a film star,

Peter Cushing, now lived at the Lower Island and had acquired

the allotment. By now, Peter and dad had become quite well

 acquainted and dad suggested that I should take Anne to

see what his allotment had become. I understand that Helen Cushing

was ailing at that time and the actor had arranged for the land to be turned

 into a beautiful 'walled garden' for her and other local seniors to share!"

"This garden of tranquility was enclosed by a lovely masonry wall.

On seeing it, it was truly beautiful and we took a couple of photographs.

Within the wall were grass lawns, rosebeds and what really

caught my eye...a 'Dovecot'!"

"When I made a further visit to Whitstable in the '70s,
I took a walk past the garden with my brother Ray
and his son, Geoff. The photo below shows them outside
 the wall and the 'dovecote' can be clearly seen above the wall."

"When last home in 2005, I was so sad to see that the

 garden no longer existed and that it had been replaced

 by infill - with a house in its place. What a shame

 that this tranquil garden that he created could not have

 been preserved in his honour for all to enjoy."

John Harman, British Columbia
Canada

This is a cutting from The Garden News Section of the UK

Daily Express Newspaper, dated Friday 30th September 1966 featuring

Peter and Helen Cushing's walled garden. It was this cutting amongst others

that Linda king too with her when PCASUK met Peter Cushing for the

last time an caused peter to whisper 'My Dear, how terribly kind

of you...to keep this and show it to me today!' Such a sweet gesture

from a very sweet and kind man.... with the greenest of fingers!      

                               

Mary Thomas from Whitstable remembers:

"Over the decades and even the centuries, Whitstable has

been home to a number of famous people. But I doubt

that any earned the affection of local people quite as much

as the actor Peter Cushing. After visiting the town in the

early 1950's, Peter and his actress wife Helen Beck,

became local residents when they purchased a seafront house

in Wave Crest during 1959.

"News swept town and it wasn't long before we could all identify

the attractive but perhaps unremarkable property that edhged the West

Beach shingle and backed onto the Lower Island Wall roadway at

the rear. Within in a few years, the Island Wall aspect had changed

quite dramatically as Peter expanded the rear garden and surrounded

it with a high stone wall. Behind the privacy of that wall, he

created a small oasis - one that we kids could only dream about!'

From the outside on the Island Wall, the stone work was very

tastefull done, with rhe wall rounded into the entrance of the garage.

This is the house that sits in the space where Peter Cushing's

 Walled Garden once stood. The wall is still standing, though

 a little lower. The back entrance to Peter's home, faces this view.

This is the rear of the house that now stands on the area.

 Left side of the house. The rear of

Peter and Helen's home can be seen in the middle background.

Fortunately, not everything disappeared. In furnishing the garden,

 Peter commissioned a garden seat that reflected

both his romantic nature and deep love for wife Helen.

The seat was designed to accommodate two people

 and the carved "back" represented the entwined arms

of two lovers. This complemented the dovecote which

also provided a symbol of love and peace.

Sadly, Helen died in 1971. In 1990, Peter donated the

seat to the people of Whitstable when the town opened

 a new viewing platform overlooking the sea at

 Keams Yard (Horsebridge). The platform (or, perhaps

 more accurately, the scene that it afforded users)

was named "Cushing's View" in his honour and

 the seat has occupied pride of place on the structure ever since.

The message on the plaque is simple and poignant.....
Peter died just four years later and, for his funeral,

 the town centre came to halt in tribute.

Peter and Helen's "View", of course, lives on.