Skip to content

In pictures: Recycled art project transforms church

Jo KentSouth of England
A picture of an ancient church. A cascade of white created to look like a waterfall is coming from the tower. It ends in a blue pool in the graveyard, there are colourful knitted flowers in amongst the gravestones.
An older woman is smiling to camera. Behind her is an ancient church with the art installation she designed. It shows a waterfall made from old plastic bags flowing from the church tower into a carpet of brightly coloured knitted flowers. The woman has short white hair and is wearing a blue striped cardigan. It is a bright and sunny day.
The waterfall installation cascades 40ft (12m) from the top of the church tower.
Steph Glen and her team of volunteers spent nine months working on the project.

A new art installation has transformed a church in the New Forest into a towering waterfall and a meadow of colourful flowers and insects.

The watery cascade at St John the Baptist church in Boldre, near Lymington, Hampshire, was created with recycled bin bags by a team of about 12 volunteers over nine months.

The Waterfall Garden installation, thought up by Steph Glen, follows a Remembrance display at the church, which saw nearly 5,000 hand-crafted poppies, created by volunteers, appear to flow from the top of the tower.

"It's been quite interesting trying to explain to people what we were going to do," said Glen. "When you say, 'we'll just get a few old plastic bags and hang them up on strings and it's going to look great' but, actually, it does."

The waterfall stretches 40ft (12m) from the top of the church tower to the ground, where it meets a blue pool, crafted from recycled fabric and plastics.

All around is a colourful wildflower meadow, featuring hundreds of knitted blooms, interspersed with others made from fabric and plastic bags, and there are more displays inside the church.

The installation is free to visit until 15 July but donations are being requested.

Glen said: "We just want lots of people to come, see the outside and see the inside.

"We want it to be fun, we want children to come and to just see what we've done."

Any money raised will be split between the Boldre Church Trust, and local charities Coda Music & Arts Trust and the Countryside Education Trust.