Laura Pinkham, Cllr Susan Carey, chairman of Shepway District Council and Chris McCreedy open the Zig Zag path

Tuesday 09 February and I am in Folkestone to mark the completion of the works to our wonderful Coastal Park in Folkestone. 

It was a landslip in 1784 which first created a new strip of land between the beach and the cliff at Folkestone.  The new land was originally used for grazing cattle but by Victorian times it was used for recreation.   

The Zig Zag path dates from 1921 and was designed to make it easy for people in bath chairs to move between the Leas which are the formal gardens on the top of the cliff and the coast. 

The Zig Zag Path

The area had fallen into neglect when Shepway District Council put forward plans to create a Coastal Park running from Folkestone to Sandgate.  Funding was secured from SEEDA, the European Union, KCC and the Heritage Lottery Fund.  The first phase of the Coastal Park was opened in May 2000.

Today’s event marks the completion of that project with the replacement of the horrible old railings made of drainage pipe by stainless steel  railings specially forged in a foundry in Ashford.  The new railings twist and swirl in an Art Nouveau style.  They look very stylish and Coastal Park Manager Laura Pinkham assures me they are very practical as well.

One of the new railings

Together with Laura and with Chris McCreedy, Shepway’s Grounds Manager, I cut a symbolic ribbon to officially reopen the Zig Zag path.  

Whilst this is the last part of the hard works the work of planting and caring for the Coastal park continues.  Laura introduces me to her team of gardeners who are preparing the beds along the Zig Zag for a new planting scheme including ferns, bulbs, shrubs and annuals and as we walk up the path I notice a cyclamen in bloom in defiance of the subzero temperatures. 

The Gardening Team

If you haven’t already been to the Coastal Park then please do.  It’s well worth a visit.  If you haven’t been recently, come again and see how well it’s matured.