Hadlow College has been successful at this year's Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

Its vision for the regeneration of a former mining community in East Kent has seen it win 'Best in Show'.

The Green Seam garden, designed by Stuart Charles Towner and Bethany Williams, both students on the Garden Design course at Hadlow College, tells the story behind the Betteshanger Sustainable Parks project.

Having been awarded a Gold medal in the Show Garden category, the judges went on to present the Green Seam team with the ‘Best in Show’ award for the category.

The judges described Green Seam as: “Quite simply a show stopper, with a unique and moving story”.

Set in rural east Kent, the area offered few job prospects for the former miners despite the promises of successive governments. In 2011, Hadlow College was invited to develop a plan to boost local skills, aspirations and innovation, which led to the £40m Betteshanger Sustainable Parks project.

Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, director of finance and resources at Hadlow Group, which operates Hadlow College and Betteshanger Sustainable Parks, said: “The Best in Showsuccess is testament to the design flair of our students and quality of our teaching staff.

"We were keen to promote our garden design course on a national stage through our show garden at the RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show.

“Green Seam tells the story of the transformation from colliery to country park, and looks forward to the area’s future built on the combination of sustainable green technologies and innovation, further education and creation of new jobs.”

The garden was constructed by Maidstone-based RDC Landscape Design and Construction, and sponsored by Willmott Dixon. It features a black wall representing the coalface; coal pillars depicting the miners and their heritage and a lift cage symbolising the miners’ daily descent below ground.

Steel structures and metal cables support climbing plants to reflect the shape of the colliery pithead, while black opaque glass pillars represent the future.

Work will shortly get underway on the first phase of the project with the building of the energy efficient Visitor Centre at the Betteshanger Country Park, which is managed by the Hadlow Group.

After the show, the garden will be relocated to Betteshanger Sustainable Park and reconstructed near the site of the Kent Mining Museum, part of the visitor centre, where it will be enjoyed by many thousands of visitors every year.

The RHS Hampton Court Palace Flower Show runs until Sunday.