Background
“In October 2006, The Watling Street Garden of Remembrance was opened by the Mayor of Dartford creating a much-needed place in which to remember loved ones.” (Dartford Borough Council). At the time, the garden was initially laid down to lawn and featured four large timber pergolas and ornamental shrub planting. The Columbaria Company's Sanctum 2000 after-cremation vault units were later installed on concrete foundations alongside paved footpaths which followed the perimeter of the garden.
By 2018, Dartford Borough Council had identified that land needed to be further developed to accommodate a rising demand for the Sanctum 2000 units and met with The Columbaria Company to establish their options.
Soon after the meeting, The Columbaria Company's Creative Team came up with CAD designs which we were then agreed with Dartford Borough Council to place a large amount of Sanctum 2000s in the middle of this space.
Initial Design Proposal
It was decided that the central lawn area of the garden was to be utilised for this purpose and the company’s CAD And Garden Designer visited site to take site measurements, photographs and to note site access etc. for the future install.
A scaled drawing and photo-realistic 3D renders were produced and the proposal suggested retaining a percentage of the existing lawn and developing the central area for the installation of Sanctum 2000’s, Buxton Seats and a Sanctum Panorama vault unit which would provide a focal point at the intersection of proposed new tarmac footpaths.
Revised Design Proposal
This project was revisited in 2023 and it was decided that the whole of the existing lawn area was to be removed and a larger number of both singular and double (back-to-back) Sanctum 2000 units were proposed within a resin-bound gravel footpath layout.
Several Columbaria Company products were also suggested as alternative central focal points including the Mulberry Tree, Birch Tree, Rustic Postbox and Fountain Of Memories.
At this point, detailed foundation drawings were provided so that the groundworks and hard-landscaping installation costs could be procured by the council.
Also, the revised plans and 3D visualisations were used by the council to convey the design intent to all the interested parties to gain approval.
Memorial Installation
The infrastructure works were completed by the Spring of 2024 and the first phase of memorial installation was undertaken soon after.
The first phase of the installation, which featured single Sanctum 2000 units, took a week to complete during April and The Columbaria Company returned for another week to install Double Sanctum 2000 vault units and two Buxton Seats in October 2024.
In total the project created niches for 626 sets of cremated remains in an area approximately 250 m2 in size.
