Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days
The Friends hold regular task days in the park on the last Saturday of each month in the winter and the middle and last Saturday from March to November. Everyone is welcome to join in for as long or as short they wish during the specified times. Please note that children and young people under 18 must be accompanied by a responsible adult.
If you are interested becoming a volunteer with us please get in touch and we will add you to our Task Day notifications.
We like to keep a record of what we get up and here are details of past task days.
Task Day 29 November 2014
A much better day than we were expecting weather-wise and a great turnout from volunteers.
One of the main tasks of the day was planting of bulbs provided by the council. These included Crocuses, Tulips and Alliums, plus a spring surprise as the label was missing from one bag! Plenty more work done on the flowerbeds too, a little bit of painting and some more pruning back along the woodland walk down by the canal.
We also took delivery of some components for a new project that we're very excited about - we'll be telling more soon.
Task Day 08 November 2014
A wet, cold and generally grotty day but with the Remembrance Service tomorrow we wanted to ensure things look the best they can at this time of year and our hardy volunteers certainly achieved that. As well as tidying up the flowerbeds, leaves were raked and swept from the main driveway and Sensory Garden, crocus bulbs were planted and a lot or work was done clearing hundreds of small saplings in the woodland walk. There weren't many people around but thank you to the few park users passing, who donated a total of £5 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 25 October 2014
Not many photos today due to the changeable weather but lots of good work done by a small bunch of volunteers.
The Cinema bed was given a really good tidy-up, the ornamental flowerbeds and War Memorial beds were trimmed, weeded and tidied too and lots of leaves cleared - although you would hardly notice due to the wind constantly bringing more down. More work was done on the tidying of the perimeter footpath too.
With the Remembrance service getting even closer we swapped over the flags - raising the Union Flag on the memorial pole and asked the councillor on surgery duty if the driveway to the park can be cleaned before the Remembrance weekend.
Our Timeline Display commemorating the lives of Marple's WWI fallen on the railings in front of Hollins House is now underway and will be updated over the coming months and years in "real time" as we reach the 100th anniversary of each man's death. We hope that this will help local people understand the devastation of the Great War on the community 100 years ago.
Thank you to park users, who donated over £28 in our collection bucket today.
Task Day 27 September 2014
With Remembrance approaching there was a lot of focus on the ornamental flowerbeds during today's task day. It's really important to us that they look the best they can for the service in November and we only have one more task day before that takes place. We also planted bulbs from Lyme Park at the top end of the Park and did some light crown-lifting to the perimeter footpath alongside the canal, selectively removing branches at eye level to keep them out of walkers' faces.
Returning to Remembrance - our project to commemorate the lives of Marple's WWI fallen with a temporary display using the railings in front of Hollins House was approved by Marple Area Committee on Wednesday. We've cleaned and repainted the railings in preparation for this and we're excited about this new project that will begin towards the end of October.
Thank you to park users, who donated over £26 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 30 August 2014
Unfortunately everything was too wet for painting, so today's efforts focused on work to shrub beds and flowerbeds. There was also some crown lifting to trees in the park, a tidy-up of the wall bordering the canal towpath, cutting back of ivy on the toilet block and a litter-pick throughout the park. It was also good to chat with folk from Compstall who are thinking of setting up a new Friends Group for a small park in their area.
Task Day 18 August 2014
Painting the Infants Play Area fence with NCS Challenge!
Today 13 young people from NCS with The Challenge and their supervisor Lisa joined Friends of the Park to paint the Infants Play Area fence. Thankfully the weather was kind to us, with just a brief shower, and the young people even finished our challenge early allowing them to relax with a few games of French Boules before setting off home.
We'd like to extend a big thank you to the young people who helped us out today with in the region of 42 hours of free labour in the park. We'd also like to thank Sara at The Challenge for contacting us about this and for the £100 contribution towards the painting materials too. Thanks also to park users, who donated just over £11 in our collection bucket while we were there.
