Michael – Humans of Avon and Somerset

You can walk through the site and feel like you’re miles away from anywhere. It’s so important to destress in today’s lifestyle, and particularly with the work policing entails.

Michael, Facilities Manager

I was born and raised in the Quantock Hills, which is where my passion for gardening and horticulture started. After leaving school, I had a couple of jobs, I trained as a tailor and then as a manager of a bike shop before I managed to get on a horticultural course at Cannington College. I completed a three-year course which qualified me to go into the horticulture industry.

I spent around two or three years as the deputy head gardener for what was then Southmead Health Authority, which covered all the hospitals from Clevedon all the way up to Thornbury. It was a very different hospital when I started working there, compared to the vast site it now is. We developed the grounds to encourage patients and staff to be able to walk around, enjoy relaxing in them, and be part of the healing process for many people.  

Policing always interested me, and I considered joining long before I’d finished my horticulture training, but it didn’t feel the right time to apply. I joined Avon and Somerset Police in 1987 as a police officer, and although it was an exciting change, I was sad about leaving my horticulture career behind. Over a 12-year career I held roles such as a ’beat’ officer, road traffic officer, and an authorised firearms officer. I resigned as an officer in 1999 but was fortunate to have the opportunity to combine my knowledge of policing with my previous horticulture background. 

The role of landscape manager was my next step, looking after the Avon and Somerset Headquarters in Portishead, which covers 47 acres of land. I would like to think that over the years I was landscape manager, I developed the headquarters land from what was a rather overgrown, bland site to something that was a little bit more interesting and beautiful, with a variety of plants and animals. We have great crested newts which are protected by law, and for the last 15 years we’ve had several generations of roe deer that call our site their home. 

My pioneering role was the centre of intrigue from lots of colleagues – how did I manage to switch from a uniformed officer to a staff member in charge of landscapes? I think lots of my colleagues at the time hadn’t had a previous career to policing, they had joined straight from school. I was fortunate that I had my previous skills to fall back on, and I was in the right place when the opportunity at headquarters arose. I’m very grateful that it did and my senior management allowed me to be as creative as I wanted in the role. 

I thought then, and still do now, that policing is a vocation rather than just a job. You must really absorb it. I realised by 1999 that my time on the frontline was over, but I’ve always believed in what the police force as an organisation do, and that’s why I stayed within policing, albeit in the support side. As a public service we have a role to perform, and we owe it to the public to perform that role well. I felt returning to my horticultural roots, excuse the pun, was a good way to still help and support the organisation by harnessing what I love.  

One of my standout moments happened when I hadn’t been in post very long, when I created the Japanese garden within the main admin block. I was very keen on Japanese gardens as in my previous employment at Southmead Hospital, I created one there and so it was natural I’d want to create one for headquarters. The surroundings and environment were perfect, and it was a fascinating project to work on. Most of our flowering and exotic plants originate from China and were brought across the world many years ago, and so it’s amazing to have recreated that in a little corner of HQ. It also has stone features, all quite authentic. I’ve been given lots of compliments by people, including a visiting team from the BBC at one point. It was nice that people felt that way about it. We started doing monthly walks around the site, and it was nice that the staff engaged in the grounds and appreciated the surroundings where they worked.  

I think the benefits are immeasurable. With my small team of staff, I always instilled in them that we need to make the grounds look appealing and pleasant, tidy and well kept. If the display of something is looked after, it reflects well on the people inside, which is a great first impression for visitors. If they’ve never visited HQ before and they see how well taken care of the lands are, it feeds into the image of the organisation.  

It’s also important for the staff that work at HQ, to have the outside environment to de-stress and move away from work if it ever gets too much. I was keen that we had lots of seating areas outside the nature trails, which have now grown well beyond maturity. You can walk through the site and feel like you’re miles away from anywhere. It’s so important to destress in today’s lifestyle, and particularly with the work policing entails. Our officers and staff deal with some challenging things in the line of duty, and to be able to give them that opportunity to just move away, to resettle and recharge, it makes their life and everybody else’s so much better, I believe. As well as finding solace in the garden, I am passionate about long walks in nature, some of my favourite spots being the Lake District, Exmoor and the Brecon Beacons.

I’ve had a hand in helping another of our centres thrive, The Wilfred Fuller Centre, which provides purpose-built facilities for operational training. The project has required a lot of planning and maintenance since we acquired it, but we are getting there, and we’ve made tremendous strides for our staff who work there, and visiting colleagues from other forces. Sometimes I think we beat ourselves up and think we haven’t achieved what we wanted to, that when other forces turn up and really appreciate your work, it makes you feel good and try not to take what you have for granted. It’s a great compliment and it does give you that motivation to continue.  

Horticulture is always going to be a part of my life, as it always has been. I’m hopefully coming up to retirement at the end of the year, so eventually it will be time to move onto pastures new. However, while my tenure may be coming to an end, I know the gardens of HQ will live on and continue to provide a beautiful home for both humans and wildlife.