The owner of a former post office-turned-gin bar is trying to restore its garden named in honour of a local woman.
The Pillar Box on Mansfield Road in Sherwood opened in November, and is trying to improve its garden after it became a ‘dumping ground’.
The garden is named after a former member of Post Office staff who saved an elderly lady from being mugged.
“When we first took over the old post office and were starting to discover our new environment, one of the things we came across was this little plaque in the garden to Jayne Robertson, so we made some enquiries and found out a little bit about her,” said Karl Routledge-Wilson, who owns the bar.
“She was a post mistress for many years, the story being that she came to the rescue of an elderly lady in her 90s who was being mugged outside the post office.
“She was quite a local heroine and a lot of people had tremendous respect for her.”
The bar is Karl’s retirement project, and he is now looking to restore the garden so visitors have a peaceful outdoor space in Sherwood.
“Today the garden’s rather falling to disrepair and neglect, and looks very sad, so we really want to do something about it.
“What we’d like to do is to make it a nice place for people during the summer to sit and have a cup of coffee, read a book.
“Sherwood’s a very busy main road and there aren’t many places that you can go and find some peace and tranquillity.”
The bar is now running a public survey and petition before Karl applies for planning permission to allow people to drink in the restored garden. It has almost 100 signatures.
Although he admits there have been some concerns from locals about the plan, Karl is eager to reassure people that it wouldn’t be a noisy venue.
“I want it to be a place where people could chill out and relax, and so far everybody I’ve spoken to has been very positive about it,” he said.
“I think it’s about reassuring our neighbours that in fact it’s not going to interfere with their privacy or their quiet space, in fact it should be somewhere for everybody to enjoy.”
He’s hoping that the garden will have some decking, a water feature, some potted plants and chairs where people can sit outside.
Karl is also hopes to get a new, larger plaque to honour Jayne.
“Obviously people cared enough to create this space in the first place, and I think they’d be very sad to see that it became a sort of dumping ground really,” he said.
