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 April 2015

Decent weather at last saw volunteers start the task day by digging out hundreds more ash saplings in the woods and planting 10 fruit trees along the canal-side woodland walk, while others tidied up the Reading Circle behind the library.

Following that it was all hands to the flowerbeds to start catching up on their maintenance and a thorough litter-pick of all areas of the park too. Park users donated nearly £7 in our bucket during the short time we were working on the beds too.

Task Day 28 March 2015

Not many photos this time due to heavy rain for most of the morning but a handful of volunteers donned waterproofs to brave the weather and a fair bit of work was achieved.

It wasn't one of our most rewarding days in the park to be honest. As well as the rain, we discovered that our WWI timeline display had been subjected to obscene graffiti, there was graffiti all over the benches near the bowling green and disgusting dog mess all around the flowerbeds. A litter-pick around the perimeter of the park also revealed numerous full dog poo bags thrown in the bushes. All this abuse of the park by people who use it is rather depressing.

We even found a new Asda sign that had been graffiti-ed and ripped off the wall. We've recently objected to this sign in our comments on Asda's planning application but do not condone its removal by vandals. We reported it to contractors in the Asda car park, however, we do hope that they will not refit it until after their planning application has been processed because we believe that the planners will take note of our comments on this particular sign and reject it.

On the positive side, shrub beds were maintained and several new plants put in, fence posts installed, a start was made bashing the huge amount of self-seeded saplings in the canal woodland and we had some fabulous cakes. We always have cakes during our tea breaks but today's were a special homemade treat by one of our volunteers and were definitely the highlight of the day!

Task Day 14 March 2015

Volunteers were so enthusiastic to get back into the park that we decided to squeeze in an extra task day for March.

A really good tidy-up of the shrub bed at the top of the park near where our second silhouette will soon be installed was the first thing tackled. Management of the woodland walk alongside the canal was completed, more bulbs planted and more work to the flowerbeds and the Sensory Garden were also carried out.

Two large gaps were filled in the Beech hedge bordering Station Road and Willow whips were planted with the longer term intention of creating a bird hide along the woodland walk too.

Task Day 28 February 2015

With our January task day being snowed off it seems like an long time since we've been in the park and it was great to get back and do some work. The park is springing back into life with a great display of crocuses and snowdrops.

A real good tidy-up of the shrub beds alongside the driveway into the park was followed by similar treatment for the beds in front of the Scout Hut and alongside the Senior Citizens Hall. The Jubilee Bed in front of the library, the toilet bed and the shrub bed towards the top end of the park were also tackled, as was the wildlife area behind the library.

While this was going on another small team was carrying out some management work to the woodland alongside the canal and another was preparing the goal-post frame at the top end of the park ready for its new silhouette artwork. This will be the same as the one we recently installed at the main entrance. We've been getting great comments from the public about this and we're delighted with the results. We'll be adding a new project page about this in the near future.

Marple Allotment Association were also in attendance tidying up their beds and like us they're looking forward to spring!

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.