Representative AI image of an underground maze carved by Francis Proctor. (Image Credits: ChatGPT)
Francis Proctor spent 30 years constructing an underground labyrinth by hand-digging beneath his garden in Ainsdale, Southport. Under her direction, Francis gradually dug deeper using spades and shovels, eventually reaching around 20 feet below the garden. The memorial also includes a historic foundation stone that Proctor tracked down himself, according to a Metro report in 2025. The stone once stood at Southport Hospital, where the Earl of Derby originally laid it in 1922. In 2022, centuries of history came full circle when Francis unveiled that very stone in his garden to honour Barbara’s memory 100 years after it had originally been laid.
Barbara Proctor, a mathematician and statistician, examined the plans and worked out how the excavation could proceed, according to LadBible. The plaque was made by the same craftsmen who made Barbara’s gravestone, giving the entrance another link to her memorial, according to Metro. Proctor, a retired photographer, carved out a network of caves that house a bridge, a waterfall and a collection of unusual objects from around the world. The couple had underpinned the side of their house when they built an extension, and the digging itself was Francis’s project. What started as an idea for a private underground room burgeoned into a site for visitors, and eventually the garden became a memorial dedicated to his wife after she passed away. When Barbara passed away, Proctor dedicated the garden to her and placed a plaque at its entrance bearing the words ‘Barbara’s Garden’. By incorporating this piece of Southport’s heritage, he permanently tied the sanctuary he built for his wife to the history of the town itself. The foundation stone took on a new purpose in the garden but retained its original association with Southport Hospital. The plaque and the stone together, marked the garden as a tribute to Barbara and the role she played in making the excavation possible.
