A SECRET garden in the heart of Minehead, abandoned for nearly 70 years is looking for a new owner to bring it back to life after Somerset Council decided to dispose of it as ‘surplus to requirements’.

Hidden behind grassy banks and high walls, the locked and barred Clanville Gardens, a terraced Victorian palm garden once belonging to the now-demolished Clanville House, is invisible from surrounding roads and properties around Holloway Street.

When the news broke that the acre of overgrown wilderness is to be put on the open market, campaigners were quick to urge that it should be acquired for the town and turned into a unique leisure attraction.

Former town councillor Michael Burke, who five years ago failed to persuade the town council to become involved in buying the land for the local community, said he was once again pressing the council to make a bid for what he called ‘a fabulous piece of horticultural history’.

Mr Burke said: “It could probably be acquired very cheaply and there would be no reason to immediately start spending money.

“Once the town owned the gardens, they could be restored when circumstances were right.

“There is great interest in the town and when we tried to acquire it in 2018 there was no shortage of volunteers anxious to help bring the project to life.”

Minehead’s mayor, Cllr Craig Palmer, was invited to comment on the matter but the Free Press did not receive a response from him.

Other organisations have indicated that Somerset Council’s decision to put Clanville Gardens on the market was an opportunity to be taken seriously.

Minehead People and Place Partnership, part of a new Government scheme to improve links between central and local authorities, plans to discuss the possibility of the community taking over the gardens at its meeting next month.

And Minehead Conservation Society is also monitoring the situation and has appealed to local benefactors to consider approaching Somerset Council with a rescue plan.

Sandwiched between Holloway Street, Market House Lane, and the Clanville residential development, what became known as ‘the secret gardens’ was an oasis of exotic plants and tropical palms, with greenhouses and an ornamental lake.

When the house was demolished, the grounds became a nursery supplying Blenheim Gardens.

After the nursery went out of business, lack of access made the area unsuitable for a modern nursery, allotments, or housing development, and it was left to run wild in the 1950s.

Since then, there have been several unsuccessful attempts to secure it for the community, including one for a forest garden project in 2014 by the Minehead Development Trust.

The former district council barred all public entry to the gardens, claiming that trees had become dangerous, the sloping ground was unsafe, and there were protected badger setts.

In a statement to the Free Press, a Somerset Council spokesperson said: “Clanville Gardens were declared surplus to requirements at a recent meeting of the council’s assets management group and it was proposed to put the site on the market in the near future.

“Community bids will be evaluated alongside other offers if and when received.”

Former councillor Maureen Smith, a delegate to Minehead People and Places Partnership, and who was involved in the Minehead Development Trust’s scheme to turn the site into a community garden in 2014, said there had been unsuccessful attempts to obtain permission to build on the site.

Mrs Smith said: “It has to be said that it is a very difficult site with water supply and access problems and many steep inclines.

“However, seeing the view of Minehead and the surrounding countryside from the woods at the top of the site endears it to the viewer and inspires hopes that the site could be part of a community effort to protect nature and enhance the health and wellbeing of the local population.

“Other communities have transformed sites like Clanville for the benefit of residents and tourism.

“Co-operation between the local councils and voluntary groups might do the same for Minehead as we all face a difficult future together.”

Minehead Conservation Society chair Sally Bainbridge said there needed to be urgent action following Somerset Council’s decision to put the gardens up for sale.

Ms Bainbridge said: “We certainly do not want to see it built over, but with the lack of access and the steepness of the ground this would be very difficult.

“It is a very important piece of land which needs to be preserved for the community and it would be nice to think there is somebody out there who cared sufficiently about the environment to come up with a viable scheme to save the gardens and restore them to something like their former state.”