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 11 June 2022
Vandals cause disappointing start to today's task day
We arrived at the park today to discover vandalism to the roof of the former Bowling Pavilion and to the Infants Play Area fence yet again. This is the fourth time vandals have deliberately and systematically damaged the fencing around the play area, resulting in costs to the council and Friends of the Park that could have been spent on making improvements.
We reported the roof damage to the council and hope it will be dealt with quickly. Fortunately we had come armed with the right tools for another job and were able to replace all the slats that had been kicked off by the time we left. If you see anyone doing damage like this again please report to the police.
Please stop stealing plants from the park!
More disappointing news is that someone has been stealing plants from the park flowerbeds.
We know this because a family recently added a small plant to the War Memorial beds in memory of a loved-one who had passed away. A few days later the plant had been dug up and taken. When this was discovered a close friend of the deceased person replaced it with another plant but a few days later this was also stolen too. It has been very distressing for family and friends, who will be replacing the plant again soon. Friends of the park have added a small sign appealing for it to be left alone.
To make it clear to unscrupulous people who think they can help themselves to plants from the park - you are not stealing from the council (not that it's OK if you were) you are stealing from Friends of the Park volunteers and the local community who have paid for or donated all the plants and shrubs in the park flowerbeds. Please leave our plants alone!
If visitors to the park witness anyone removing plants from the beds not wearing a Friends' hi-vis vest, please challenge them as they are stealing from all of us!
Thankfully we did get some positive work done today
Better news is that our other volunteers mainly focused on tidying the second half of the War Memorial flowerbeds and we're pleased to complete this before Marple Carnival next weekend. We also straightened the edges of the flowerbed recently adopted by Marple Scouts. They've been doing lots of work on it recently and we're looking forward to seeing it develop.
Thank you to park visitors who popped over £14 in our collection bucket.
Sunday 12 June 2022
Quick visit to the park this morning to do a job that would have been done yesterday if we hadn't had to re-fix vandalised fence slats!
Task Day 28 May 2022
A very productive day for Friends of the Park!
We fell lucky with the weather and got a huge amount done in the park today. Tasks included a concerted effort to weed and tidy the War Memorial Beds. The low hedge was trimmed and the border redefined on one side too. We also did a bit of tidying in the Reading Circle, as it is going to be used for Story Time by the library on Monday.
We tried out our new cordless battery powered lawnmower in the Band Room garden and the new strimmer too. These have been purchased along with standard and long reach hedge-cutters with an award we received from the Stockport CAN Fund that has allowed us to remove our dependency on petrol powered tools. We were delighted with the results.
We also put a final coat of paint on the Coronation Bench (after another volunteer did the first coat of the seat last week) and it is now ready for the tree to be decorated as part of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee Marple Tree Trail. Two of our volunteers also removed the remains of the 3 trees broken by vandals and the stakes that were driven a long way down.
Earlier this week one of our volunteers also finished painting the library steps and repaired a bench that had lost a slat.
Park visitors donated over £22 in our bucket too, thank you!
Task Day 14 May 2022
Great welcome to Marple Memorial Park for Coffee Bean Dream!
We were pleased to arrive in time to welcome Sarah from Coffee Bean Dream to the park for the first time on our task day today. Coffee Bean Dream will be in the park selling coffee, cakes and many other kinds of refreshments most Saturdays and Sundays going forward. Friends of the Park are hugely supportive of Sarah bringing her business to the park and we can see already that Reddish Vale's loss is Memorial Park's gain. In the photo below Cllr. Malcolm Allan and Angie cut the ribbons on Coffee Bean Dream's first day in the park.
A wonderful day to be working in the park
This was our first mid-month Task Day of 2022 and despite a smaller turnout than our end of month ones we got a great deal of work done. Flowerbeds were weeded, lots of work was done in the Band Room Garden and progress was made on maintaining steps and benches. In particular, the back of the Coronation Bench was given a much needed clean-up and repaint. We also planted our recent purchases from Marple Scouts in the Sensory Bed opposite the Scout Hut for them to enjoy.
We were saddened that vandals have seen fit to destroy 3 new trees near to the Infants Play Area. These were planted by the council at our request and we were watering them regularly to ensure they survived the dry weather. It's hard to understand what motivates anyone to attack our efforts to improve and maintain the park.
Better news is that we remembered to put our collection bucket out this time and park visitors rewarded us by depositing almost £22!
Task Day 30 April 2022
Another busy day in the sun for Friends of the Park
Today's tasks included preparing and seeding the circular bed with wildflowers and doing the same in the borders leading to the Reading Circle behind the library. This is the first time we've done this and we're looking forward to the results. We also worked on the Band Room garden, planted some donated Gunnera, began painting under the former Bowling Pavilion canopy, cleaned up the Toddler's Play Area sign, removed a fallen tree from one of the shrub beds and did lots of watering.
While working on the Reading Circle we were delighted when one of the library staff came out and told us they are planning to use the area for story time as part of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations. We were also pleased to see that replacement of the broken windows on Hollins House is finally underway - it looks so much better!
We forgot to put out our collection bucket this time but you can donate via Localgiving or join our 50-50 Club if you'd like to support us.
Task Day 26 March 2022
Park springs back to life during glorious weather
This is probably the earliest we've ever needed to consider applying sunscreen before a task day!
A really busy and productive day saw our volunteers cleaning under the former Bowling Pavilion canopy ready for painting before we install our centenary artwork later in the year. We also chopped up a huge tree branch that had been brought down by high winds earlier in the year and created a small wildlife haven from the arisings. Many other volunteers got stuck into flowerbed maintenance behind the library, in the Jubilee bed in front of the library, the toilet block bed, and of course the main flowerbeds and memorial beds.
We also got started on annual maintenance such as painting the edges of the steps at the Bowling Green the exact same colour as the fabulous display of daffodils throughout the park.
You may notice that we now have a new flag flying from our second flagpole as a display of our support for the people of Ukraine.
Last but not least, thank you to park visitors, who kindly popped over £17 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 26 February 2022
Reading Circle make-over and Frog planting
During today's task day most of our volunteers focused on a good tidy-up of the Reading Circle behind the library, including planting-up of the trough in our new Canal Frog Rose. We hope that visitors will enjoy this new addition to the park but please refrain from climbing on it and trampling the plants.
Other activities included a big clear-up of broken branches and twigs from recent storms, extensive litter-picking and glass clearing thanks to our overnight park visitors, a tidy-up of the annoying mud puddle at the park entrance and installation of the boards for our new Pavilion Art Project Phase II - look out for more on that soon.
Great support from the community
A very big thank you to the lady who donated £100 to Friends of the Park and the kind gentleman who presented us with a cake from Archer's for our tea break. It was very nice indeed!
