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 23 September 2021
Town Centre Benches all caught up in time for Food and Drink Festival
We were delighted the weather held yesterday, allowing us to complete re-treatment of the last two benches on Market Street this year. That means we have caught-up with the lost year due to the Covid19 pandemic and all 17 Town Centre Benches have been re-treated by Friends of the Park in time for the 2021 Food and Drink Festival.
Next year we would still like to clean up and repaint the metalwork too and it would be easier if we had access to an outside tap. Is there an owner of a business premises or residence in the Market Street area that could help us with this please?
Task Day 20 September 2021
Town Centre Benches on the Hollins completed for 2021
The last two benches on the Hollins were sanded and treated on Monday and we've nearly caught up after Covid delays in 2020.
Just two benches left on Market Street, which we hope to manage before the Food and Drink Festival on Saturday if the weather and other commitments allow.
One nice coincidence we learned is that it was the late Marshall Shaw's birthday on the same day we treated his bench.
Task Day 18 September 2021
Lovely to see so many families enjoying a glorious day in the park!
As well as the usual hard work to keep on top of the main flowerbeds as they start to turn, a long overdue session on the second car park shrub bed was tackled. There's a lot more work here for us this winter it seems! A great job was also done on dressing the edges of the pathway between the war memorial and Hollins House.
Our man with a paint brush was on the prowl too, and anything needing a black paint touch-up was dealt with efficiently.
Just over £12 was added to our collection box by park users - thank you!
Task Day 28 August 2021
A busy day in the sunshine for Friends of the Park!
A beautiful day to be working in the park saw a focus on hedges and shrubs, with work around Hollins House, the war memorial beds and the Bandroom garden. Other jobs tackled included cleaning display boards, touch-up painting of the railings in front of the house, much needed watering of Danny Winter's pots and the endless task of keeping the flowerbeds at their best.
We also met with a local lady who has some exciting ideas for a new project in the park and visitors rewarded us with donations totalling over £13 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 7 August 2021
Big effort before the rain set in!
The forecast August downpours were fairly kind to us today, allowing us a couple of hours grace before a good soaking. This enabled us to make good progress on a tidy-up of the main flowerbeds and the war memorial beds. Other tasks included litter-picking, mowing of the band room garden and the 5-a-side goals and treatment of a couple of benches.
Thank you to park visitors for dropping over £22 in our collection bucket.
Task Day 17 July 2021
Mustn't grumble but it really was too hot to work in the park today!
A shortened task day today due to the heat but our volunteers still managed a long list of tasks by midday including: litter-picking; grass-cutting in the bandroom garden; tidying of the Scout Hut bed; planting in the Sensory Garden; edging of flowerbeds; sanding and treating benches; strimming around the 5-a-side goalposts and planting foxgloves in the woodland areas, where we at least found some shade. The allotment team were also in action keeping on top of weeds and edging their plot.
Thank you to park visitors who popped over £8 in our collection bucket.
Have you lost a bicycle?
A local resident found an abandoned bike in bushes (see last photo below) and left it with us for safe keeping. If it is yours please get in touch.
If we don't hear from the owner in a week or two we will recycle it.
