A new garden has been created in part of the churchyard of St James Church in Swimbridge, North Devon, reclaiming an area that had long been fenced off and derelict. Through it runs a path with stepping stones of natural slate, each bearing a word of a poem written by the local primary schoolchildren and cut into the stone by the children under the direction of stonemason and lettercutter Gabriel Hummerstone, assisted by colleague Jim Eveleigh.

The garden was opened by Lady Arran on 16 June. It came about thanks largely to funding by the Community Spaces programme of the Big Lottery Fund’s Changing Spaces initiative, with additional support from Devon County Council, North Devon District Council, Barnstaple Bridge Trust and South Molton Rotary Club.

Gabriel became involved in the project when he was asked to cut an inscription, “In pastures green he leadeth me the quiet waters by”, into a granite field roller.

He was then asked to assist with the path project. The children wrote a poem, under the guidance of their teacher, Naomi Jefferies, so they each had a word to go on their stepping stone. Then, with Gabriel’s help, they marked out the words to their own designs and cut them into the stones.

The children’s poem reads:

God’s garden, peaceful, magical, free
Sweet smelling grass, whispering trees
Rippling, rushing brook, bubbling by
Twittering bird songs, warm sunny sky
Wild flowers, dew drops, chattering stream
Mythical paradise, lush and green.

Gabriel Hummerstone says the project was inspiring. “Each child has managed to invest their whole personality into this permanent medium. They have thought hard about the word in the poem that they most wanted to carve and come up with designs that express the character of the chosen word.

“Each child has managed to convey this special character after minimal tuition in a highly technical and disciplined art. The result is a uniquely characterful and outstandingly unaffected and unselfconscious work of art.”