The garden is name the Sisters’ Garden after sisters Sylvia (born in 1909) and Margaret (born 1913) Richardson, who were Len Richardson’s daughters.
Neither of the Richardson sisters married and when they died, (Gargy in 1999 and Sylvia in 2000) they left their café buildings, dairy and land (described six hectares of water meadow) to the RSPB. Planning permission for the wildlife garden was not approved until 2009.
The ‘Sisters’ Garden’ at Flatford has been designed to be a memorial to their love of nature and to be a living legacy for wildlife as well as an inspiration for garden visitors to experience, enjoy and learn to create spaces for wildlife in their own gardens.