Poignancy as garden opens just weeks after family’s sudden loss
THE owner of a South Derbyshire garden that has helped to raise thousands of pounds for charity over the years had another successful opening at the weekend.
But as scores of visitors enjoyed looking over Pauline Little’s beautiful green space in Chestnut Way, Repton, in the May sunshine as part of the National Garden Scheme, there was a certain poignancy in the air.
Those who had visited Mrs Little’s garden before would have met her beloved husband, Robert. Sadly, he died suddenly several weeks ago when Sunday’s opening had already been arranged.
Despite their loss, the family said they wanted to continue to present the garden to the public, and yesterday’s opening raised a magnificent £1,750plus for the scheme’s charities, which include Macmillan Cancer Support, Hospice UK, Marie Curie and Parkinson’s UK.
The Little family were out in force for visitors, with Mrs Little’s daughterin-law Mel taking visitors’ entry cash, her daughter Rachel and daughter-inlaw Claire , both teachers, helping out in the kitchen, and her sons John and Richard, who live respectively in Durham and Bristol, in attendance with their families.
Also present were in-laws Sue and Pete Chell, of Newhall, and son-in-law Matt Chell, who has kept the grass cut for the past six weeks. Mrs Little, as usual, was kept busy ensuring everything ran smoothly and answering questions from those who had bought items from her plant stall.
An obituary prepared by the family records that Robert was born at home in Birmingham in 1952 and had a happy childhood with his mother and older sister. A lifelong Aston Villa fan, he started to develop his DIY and experimental skills early on and managed to set fire to the wooden family garage.
The Littles met at Reading University, where Robert did one of the first computer science degrees. Initially they enjoyed friendly rivalry over the shove-ha’penny board before the friendship blossomed and they were
Robert’s mark remains evident everywhere with many metal obelisks and sculptures.
Obituary
married in 1974. They then moved to the Derby area to work in the computer department in local government in both Derby and Burton.
Robert loved making and mending things. He regularly created products using redundant household items such as a clipboards and music stands to help severely disabled people become more independent. He and Pauline moved to their first house in Derby in 1975, where they spent the next five years thinning out the many self-sown sycamore trees before moving to a large house on a modern estate in Draycott in the Clay, perfect for bringing up their children, except for the smallish garden on “brickmakers’ clay.” The obituary notes: “If anything could put you off gardening, that would.”
It goes on to say that the eight years in Draycott were characterbuilding, with Robert overcoming cancer and, shortly after, losing a daughter, Helen, to cot death.
The obituary says it was with great joy in 1988 that the Littles found their “forever” house and garden in Repton, where over the next 33 years the garden developed its current mix of traditional garden and restful woodland. The obituary says: “Robert’s mark remains evident everywhere with many metal obelisks and sculptures and his signature mushrooms sculpted with a chainsaw from felled trees.”
Robert retired at 57, earlier than planned, but enjoyed 12 years of busy retirement, travelling widely but always happy to be home in Repton. The Littles first opened their garden for Repton Open Gardens in 1993. In 1999 they opened their garden for the National Garden Scheme. Over the years together they raised over £60,000 for charity.
Robert was very involved in the move from paper-based and spreadsheet systems to the current integrated systems, putting his IT and testing skills to good use.
The obituary concludes: “Over the last few years Robert and Pauline developed the gardens at Repton Village Hall, which will remain a fitting legacy for a hard-working, gentle, family man.”