Good morning Ian. Great to hear your memories. I wasn’t aware of this garden and I’m sad to learn that it is no more. I wonder if any photos survive?

This brought back memories of The Noddy Garden near the old Windmill on Peterborough Road between Stanground and Farcet. The house sat in a double-sized plot and the owner had used the empty part to the right to create a world of concrete buildings .” St Pauls Cathedral” stood probably 4 foot tall. All this stood behind tall iron gates , as if leading to a building of quality. The house (probably late 19th /early 20th cent) was just an ordinary villa.
That was 60 years ago. The Noddy Garden (our name for it) seems to have been swept away and a house built on the site.

Ohhh, I see! Wow, amazing – I had a look following your instructions on Google Maps, now I can really visualise how many people saw his work, talk of the town, how fun! Thank you so much for sharing.

I’d been speaking to a relative of yours, Richard K who I found on Facebook a few months ago after I went to visit the statue that is still in Matching Green. It has been so interesting connecting all the dots and finding extra photos within your family etc.
There was a newspaper article that a Rosemary Cockerill put out in 1997 calling for photos of Horace’s garden from people, I do wonder if she was ever successful in hearing back. A Henry Cockerill was documenting too but I haven’t heard back from either to find out.

My uncle’s house was next door to the right big place and thathed

Hi Nikki my uncles house was sold after the death of my aunty Irene Wallace it wasn,t demolished but refurbished .It,s in the corner of the common on the right hand side as you go down the hill to the primary school as you pass the chequers pub on your right you have what we used to call the lower road its on the end of that hope this helps

Hi David, do you remember the location of your uncles old house? I am trying to locate it myself. Someone in the village told me it was torn down and a ‘mansion’ put in it’s place!

Hello David. Many thanks for sharing your memories. Horace certainly seems to be remembered with great affection by everyone who met him and encountered his eccentricities.

I remember the house and statues and i spoke to Horace many a time as a child my uncle Norman and Barbara cousins Anna and Sarah and there dog pipe lived next-door in the thatch cottage

My uncle Norman lived next door to Horace I remember the statues.

Hello Simon. It has been a treat to see all of the comments about Horace’s whimsical and short-lived garden. Thanks for sharing the information about the other garden and the pub.