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 16 July 2016
We're not sure what's happen to the summer but thankfully our volunteers still turn out in the rain!
We removed the ivy from the Toilet Block - we've trimmed this back several times but it soon regrows and starts to invade the fabric of the building again, so this time we decide to try to eradicate it completely and hope to plant something less invasive in the future. We did some more work in the Bandroom garden and met with a representative to discuss maintaining it long term. We did more work on the shrub beds alongside the path to the bandroom and had a good tidy up in the Cinema bed too. We did some light weeding to the main Flowerbeds but it was too wet to do more.
We also extended the First World War Timeline backing on the railings ready for more men to be commemorated in the future as their 100th anniversaries are reached.
Task Day 25 June 2016
We were delighted to welcome two new volunteers today to boost our ranks depleted by the holiday season!
The never ending chore of weeding and edging the flowerbeds continued, with some new plants left over from our sale at Marple Carnival added too. As mentioned last time, we also added a new feature of two former hanging baskets donated to us by Friends of Rose Hill Station to either side of Danny Winter's bench. We are in the hands of park users here and we hope that they will be treated with respect and not interfered with or damaged.
Other tasks included replacing the Perspex in the Skatepark and library notice boards, the former being impossible to see through and the latter having been broken by someone. We also removed two trees from the Bandroom garden and started on a bit of a tidy-up for them that we'll hopefully finish next time.
Once again visitors to the park showed their appreciation by telling us how wonderful the flowerbeds are looking and chucking nearly £14 into our donation bucket. Thank you!
Task Day 11 June 2016
A quieter task day with many regular volunteers on their holidays but still very productive. Edging and weeding of flowerbeds and treatment of wooden features were the main tasks, with pruning of shrubs and hedges ongoing too.
Tree sculpture Midnight looked much better for another coat of preservative after our patching-up last time but unfortunately it's now in serious decline and we will have to start thinking about what to do next as it will reach a point when it has to be removed. It's hard to tell when this will be but we'd guess not more than another year.
We've been given some hanging basket planters by Friends of Rose Hill and we've been thinking about unusual ways to use them. Watch this space!
Thank you to generous visitors to the park, who donated over £18 in our collection bucket!
Task Day and Treasure Hunt 28 May 2016
The weather was perfect for working in the park and also for the second Annual Treasure Hunt organised in partnership with local estate agent Julian Wadden.
Flowerbeds, Benches and more...
For task day volunteers it was mostly about edging and weeding the main flowerbeds, war memorial beds and the Sensory Garden. They are all now coming into bloom and filling out nicely but it takes a lot of effort to keep the weeds at bay. Better weather also meant that we could make good progress with maintenance of benches and most of them have now had their spring / summer treatment. Other tasks included litter-picking and some maintenance work on the French Boules Court.
2nd Family Treasure Hunt organised by Julian Wadden
The second Family Treasure Hunt ran from 11am to 2pm and was aimed at 3 to 10 year olds with parents, grandparents or carers assisting as needed. There were two sets of clues, one for ages 3-5 years and the other for 6-10 years. Children hunted for clues to answer questions that would reveal the information needed to open the Treasure Chest for a share of the booty. Everyone who completed the hunt took away 5 pieces of gold chocolate!
The Treaure Hunt was even busier than last year, thanks to better publicity and promotion. It was a FREE EVENT but there were collection buckets for donations and some fabulous raffle prizes donated by local businesses. The event programme was sponsored by local businesses too.
The event today raised a grand total of £941 for the park.
Raffle takings and donations on the day amounted to £311 and when added to the £630 in sponsorship from local businesses the event raised a magnificent total of £941. Friends of the Park would like to say a huge thank you to Julian Wadden Estate Agents for organising this event with us and the following local businesses for their fantastic support:
Programme Sponsors:
£100 Sponsor: Julian Wadden. £50 Sponsor: The Rolling Pin. £30 Sponsors: All Things Nice!, Brabyns Preparatory School, Helen Winterson, Jones Law Partnership, Magikats Tuition (Romiley), Marple Co-Op, Marple Drama, Marple Health, Marple Local History Society, Paul David Jewellery, Rhodes and Partners, Rope Race Climbing Centre, Stone Spar (Rose Hill), The Hatters Arms, The Ring o' Bells Public House, The Springfield Hotel.
Raffle Prize Donors:
Harmony Decor, Lower Dale Equestrian Centre, Magikats Tuition (Romiley), Nitrotek Ltd, No. 12, Pink Parrot, Regent Cinema, Rope Race Climbing Centre, Stars N Stripes, The Bookshop (Marple) Ltd, The Ring o' Bells Public House, Yvonne Gillon.
Thank you to everyone for supporting your local community park!
Task Day 14 May 2016
An extremely busy weekend for Friends of the Park volunteers, with a task day on Saturday, Skatepark Music Festival on Saturday night and then Hawk Green Maypole event raising funds for the park on Sunday. In the park we started our programme of bench treatment to keep them all in tip-top condition, weeded flowebeds, weeded and planted seeds in the woodland wildlife area and had a good tidy up of the beds close to the council offices. We replaced the worn commemorative flags with new ones and litter-picked the park too.
Sadly, we also found that the tree sculpture "Midnight" has rotted from inside quite badly and is now starting to loose the outer surface too. We did some experimental repairs to see if we can hold back the effects of this for a bit longer but they weren't very successful and currently look messy. We'll have another look at this but despite consolidating the base with resin a couple of years ago it now looks like the sculpture has started a rapid decline. We will try to extend its life for as long as we can but at some point in the not too distant future it will need to be removed.
Once again visitors to the park showed their support for what we do by donating over £21 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 30 April 2016
A fine effort from local volunteers saw completion of weeding and digging over the War Memorial Flowerbeds, and also the large shrub bed next to the council offices. There was some heavy pruning to the Garth Road shrub bed and some planting in the Jubilee and Toilet beds too. Another full litter pick of the park was also completed by volunteers.
Despite the park being quiet due to mixed weather generous visitors still donated nearly £18 in our collection bucket. Thank you!
