BROADWAY villagers are celebrating the completion of their new millennium garden.

Former parish council chairman Ken Lambley conceived the idea about six years ago but legal matters concerning a long-term lease and then planning the area took longer than anticipated.

However, now the garden, opposite Hunters' Lodge at the top of the High Street, is finished and full of shrubs and spring bulbs.

Mr Lambley said: "That corner of the field owned by the Cotswold Hunt was badly neglected, so with the millennium coming up I thought it would be a great idea to transform it into somewhere villagers and visitors could sit to admire the view. I designed the garden and now it has been planted it looks great."

Parish councillor David Robinson, who organised the work, said: "We are so pleased with how popular the garden has become."

And he added that locals and visitors were not the only ones enjoying it. "Rabbits hop around all over the place, so much so that we had to put wire netting around some plants," he said.

The most useful additions in the garden are benches, donated by village families in memory of Mark Watts, a 19-year-old who was killed in a road accident, Kurt Friedli from Hunters Lodge, Jack Hanglin, a former head teacher of Broadway First School and another villager, Joan Collins. Wychavon District Council donated £2,600 towards the cost of the work.