A FUNDRAISING auction kick started the appeal to transform a derelict piece of land into a memorial for Octavia Hill.

Auctioneer Richard Barnwell sold off �606 of items at the Rose and Crown Hotel on Saturday (July 28) to get underway the �80,000 appeal to turn the plot in Somer Road, Wisbech into the Centenary Green.

The land, which is next to the social reformer’s Birthplace House, is currently boarded up despite being a key entrance to the town.

But the new garden will be an elegant, landscaped area which pays tribute to the founder of the National Trust on the 100th anniversary of her death and is a space that the whole community will be able to enjoy.

“It will be of great benefit both to local people and visitors and it fits in perfectly with our wider vision to regenerate the town. It needs and deserves the widest possible support,” Fenland District Council leader Alan Melton said.

Peter Clayton, Chairman of the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Trust, added: “It is fitting that, to commemorate the centenary of her death, a beautiful new open space should be created, next to the house in which she was born.”

So far �20,000 for the green has already been raised in receipts and pledges but �80,000 is still needed in donations.

Anyone who can help the Centenary Green appeal should contact the Octavia Hill Birthplace Museum Trust on 01945 476358.