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.
We had to abandon our last task day of 2012 scheduled for 29 December due to the awful weather but enthusiastic volunteers decided to squeeze an extra one in to replace it this week and that was much more successful. Tasks included clearing out the remaining bedding from the Jubilee Bed and transplanting some of them to the Toilet bed. Clearing brambles and weeds from the bed to the side of the library and removing the grass and weeds from between the paving and brickwork in front of the library. Work was also done in the Breathing Places behind the library.
The chains securing the recently refurbished Senior Citizens' Bench near the Bowling Green were reconnected - thanks to The Marple Plumber for doing this for us.
Also we were very pleased to be able to complete the refurbishment of the second bench near to the Co-Op steps. This one was kindly sponsored by All Things Nice, the Marple Coffee House and Deli on Church Lane.
The good news on this task day was that we completed the installation of the second bowling green bench sponsored by Marple Senior Citizens and refurbished by Friends of the Park, which means that all three of the large cast iron benches around the bowling green have now been done. The first of the three having been sponsored by Marple Business Forum earlier in the year.
The bad news is that it has become clear that someone is stealing plants and shrubs from the park that have been donated by the public, or paid for by donations and planted by us. A beautiful new Black Alder, a Sambuca and two small Broom bushes recently planted have been taken from the War Memorial Beds. Hostas have been taken from near the library and a variety of small plants taken from the ornamental beds. We are both saddened and angered by this. It seems to us that the culprit or culprits must be keen gardeners who understand the efforts we are making to improve the park flower beds yet find it acceptable to steal from the community they live in.
If you see anyone working in the flowerbeds who are not wearing the blue uniform of SSK please take a photo of them on your phone. If it's a volunteer from the Friends of the Park they will smile and talk to you. If they are stealing plants they probably won't! Send the photo to us and we will do our best to ensure that they are prosecuted. If you see, or have any information about these thefts, please get in touch with us.
Another fine sunny morning allowed us to have a final tidy-up of the War Memorial and Ornamental flowerbeds ready for tomorrow's Remembrance Day Service. Hope the weather is as nice on Sunday as it was today!
A cold but beautifully sunny day allowed us to get lots of work done, although one of the main jobs of clearing leaves from the ornamental flower beds was a bit of a never-ending task. As well as battling with leaves there was lots of pruning in the beds and planting of winter flowering pansies and other plants donated by the public.
Another bench success story was completed too, with the refurbishment of one of the Co-Op entrance benches that has been sponsored by Costa Coffee. New hardwood slats and a commemorative plaque was fitted, and a big thank you to Costa Coffee for their support. The only trouble is that the other bench next to it that we refurbished with second hand slats now looks a bit shabby, so we are going to try and find a sponsor for that one too.
In addition to these main tasks, the last of the soil was transferred to the Jubilee Bed and some paving slabs were cut for the new commemorative bench that has replaced an old one opposite the Senior Citizens' Hall.
Unfortunately the wet weather prevented us from doing any painting and we may have to finish the Infants Play Area next year now, unless we have some unexpectedly fine weather in October or November. However, we had a very good turnout of volunteers and a great deal of tidying up around the park was achieved, including the removal of brambles, ash tree saplings and ivy from the perimeter wall bordering the canal tow path. Other areas to benefit from our volunteers' efforts were the cinema flower bed and the beds and areas around the council offices.
In addition, on Sunday 30th, while the Jubilee Sculpture was being installed, a lot of work was done on the shrub bed bordering the Senior Citizens' Hall.
More fine weather allowed us to continue making progress on the painting of the Infants Play Area and the end is in sight now if we can just have a couple more sunny days!
Lots of hard work was put into the flowerbed in the car park next to the council offices and this is looking much better.
The bolt holes on a number of recently refurbished benches were plugged and they were also re-treated with preservative. Later some work was also done in the Breathing Places area and to the flowerbed in front of the toilets.
The Diamond Jubilee Flowerbed has re-flowered and was covered in bees - this is looking really good and we are hoping that the sculpture will soon be ready to install.
Tree work in the park has started and one of our favourite trees has had to be removed due to decay and a huge crack. We were concerned about how this area of the park would look when the tree was gone but thankfully it has not been as bad as we were expecting and the views are still great. A large dead chestnut tree is also in the process of being removed.
