She Rides And Reviews - Stamner Park Accessible trail and The One Garden

Hello there readers!! Today’s blog will be all about the new Accessible path at Stamner Park and the amazing One Garden that it leads to.

First of all, I would like to dedicate this blog post to the delightful woman who screamed at me from her car yesterday. My first outing alone for over 2 years was marred by this person who decided to tell me to “get up” and that I was “fat” and “lazy”, before driving off at great speed. Dear brave woman who abuses other women from her car, this is for you. Your ableism will not force me to walk anymore than I can without injuring myself. Your ableism will not make me hide indoors, too frightened to go out because of people like you. Your ableism will not make me hate my body. Your ableism will not make me go quietly into the night, I hear your battle cry and I stand firm. You may feel uncomfortable with a person such as me being bold enough to take to the streets with so much vulnerability on show, and it makes you feel inadequate. So, with these blogs and all the other work I do, I will keep fighting to make the world a better place, not just for me and my disabled community but for people like you that have been subjected to existing in a world where abusing a disabled woman alone in the street is acceptable.

Ok now that I have expunged my little spark of William Wallace let’s get to the review!

After what seemed like a near constant deluge of rain over the last few days, to say I was keen to get out would be an understatement. Stopping just short of donning an Anneka Rice cat suit, my partner and I ventured forth to experience the new accessible trail at Stamner Park and see how accessible it truly was!

Stamner Park is, again, somewhere that I have spent a lot of time previously when my mobility was less of an issue. So when I heard that they had built a new path that allowed people like me to use the park again, I was absolutely overjoyed!

We arrived and I was pleasantly surprised at the swanky new car park. Adorned with playground and toilets and what looks like it could become a café/kiosk type affair. Sadly, it was cordoned off, but from the outside it looked nice and well designed. Make sure to check on the status of this before you go if toileting is an issue for you. Also, free parking for blue badge holders, with some good-looking disabled bays. Going well so far!

The path itself leads straight off the car park and is very smooth. It is small, compressed gravel so it is a little bumpy, but totally fine for me.

The path leads you passed some lovely mowed areas that are perfect for picnicking and are very smooth. Although obviously riding on grass for any distance is always a little bumpier than paved paths, I feel confident that I could drive on there without hurting myself or my scooter to get to a grassy area off the track to hang out with friends and family.

As we walked past one of the benches a nice cyclist was sat staring at one of the trees and he informed us that there were 12 jackdaws living in the tree in front of the bench. Lovely place to sit and do a bit of bird watching. I love animals and birds, but The Corvid family are my favourite! Still a goth/grungy teenager at heart, I will take a magnificent crow over a sparrow any day!

What can I say? the path was great! I look forward to getting back there during the summer holidays, getting sunburned and eating scotch eggs with friends and family.

The path takes you all the way up to Stamner House and beyond that is a path that takes you to Stamner’s new One Garden.

Now I must admit, I am mad for plants so I may have been a little more excited about this place than most. But honestly it was superb! Even at this time of year when the garden is so young and hasn’t established yet, I just loved the labyrinth style part that leads all the way around the garden, looking at plants that I could then buy in the shop!

They have just put in a special planked bridge type path thing, that I bravely took on for you all! I have to say that I am terrified of these types of things, now that I am less robust than I used to be, but I could feel you all with me on the day and felt emboldened to try it. It was absolutely fine in the end, although some gaps between the boards may be an issue for smaller wheels.

The entire garden is flat and accessible and welcoming. I can’t wait to sit and have a coffee there with friends looking at the ever changing and evolving garden in front of me.

This feels like a very Brighton version of Kew Gardens. Not stuffy and elitist, but a community garden celebrating common flowers that we all know and love.

The plants were also really reasonably priced and in great condition.

This is absolutely going to become one of my new favourite things to do with people. I would highly recommend it for a whole day out. Pack up some sports kit for your kids or able-bodied friends and have some fun on the lawns. Then mooch down to the One Garden, buy some plants and have a lovely coffee and cake. All without straining yourself massively and having to spend a week recovering from it.

Here is the map link to the carpark we started from:

Well done Stamner Park and the One garden, you really have done well!

As always here is a video of the path. The first video is of Stamner Park Accessible trail, it took us about 14 minutes to walk end to end stopping a couple of times.

Here is a little video of The One garden itself.

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Thank you!