Grateful Recognition
The plaque reads "In grateful recognition of the work of Stenton Covington for the preservation of Norwood Grove AD MCMXXVII" (1927). I don't know if it's a flower bed or a water feature.
And Stephen left a comment
It's a bird bath.
Stenton Thomas Covington, born locally in 1856, lived in Grecian Cottages, Beulah Hill; married Annie Christine Gibbs in srping 1896, no children. Started a fund to save Norwood Grove.