Carpet beds help the celebrations

A local school boy who designed one of Nottingham’s spectacular floral carpet beds visited the flower bed at the Arboretum in last week to see the design created in thousands of tiny plants.

This summer’s carpet bed at the Arboretum celebrates the history of the tram, and is based on a drawing by nine-year-old Harry Russell-Taylor of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School in Bulwell. Harry’s drawing was inspired by a photo of a decorated tram from 1910 marking the coronation of King George V.

Harry drew his design during the Tram Travellers project which has been run by Groundwork Greater Nottingham since 2008, helping school pupils in the city find out about the history of trams in Nottingham. Eleven classes have taken part in this project, which ends this summer. Tram Travellers is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, and Nottingham Express Transit have provided free transport for pupils on their tram network during research trips.

Harry and his family visited the carpet bed on Thursday July 8th and were joined by his whole class.

The Chair of the Nottingham in Bloom Working Group, Councillor Malcolm Wood, said: “Nottingham is renowned for the high standard of its carpet bedding displays which are admired by the thousands of visitors to the Castle and Arboretum each summer. I am delighted that young people from across the city and county have been involved in designing them again this year.”