Task Day in Memorial Park [Last Saturday each month]

[admin]

Task Day 12 June 2021

Everything is growing so quickly now and there's lots of work for our volunteers!

Now that we are allowed to use power-tools in the park again we were able to catch-up on maintenance of the bandroom garden by strimming (with our new cordless strimmer) and mowing the grass. Lots more work on the flowerbeds too, which are now filling out nicely thanks to the sunshine.

We also gave shrubs alongside Hollins House a good pruning and others cleared weeds from the park entrance on Stockport Road, which has made a huge improvement.

Read more about our task days here: https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021.html

[admin]

Three more benches knocked off the list!

Another three Town Centre benches were sanded and treated by Friends of the Park yesterday, as we gradually make our way towards Stockport Road. Special thanks for refreshments from Aggie's Bar and to Forever Yours of Cheshire Bridal Shop for helping us out with parking because the car parks were all full.

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021.html

[admin]

Task Day 22 May 2021

Another busy day on Saturday for Friends of Marple Memorial Park with lots of work completed in several areas of our wonderful park

Read more about our task days here: https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021.html

[admin]

A couple more Town Centre Benches treated while it's not raining!

We thought Derby Way would be quiet on a Sunday morning but there were lots of people out and about while we sanded and treated the two benches there.

It was good to see both cafes being well used and thank you to the Golden Plate and The Locks Coffee House and Bar for their generous provision of refreshments as we finished our chores.

A big thanks also to the kind gentleman who donated £20 to Friends of the Park!

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021/task-day-16-may-2021.html

[admin]

2021 Town Centre Bench Maintenance Underway

At last Friends of Marple Memorial Park have been able to get our 2021 Town Centre Bench maintenance underway.

Thank you to All Things Nice and Cocolato (formerly the Magnificent Chocolate Company) for your treats and passers-by for your kind comments!

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021/task-days-13-14-may-2021.html

[admin]

Task Day 1 May 2021

We were delighted by how many people thanked us for our efforts today!

Tasks included cutting down a dead willow in the woodland area and using the arisings to create a bug hotel, continuing our catch-up on bench refurbishments, litter-picking, clearing broken glass and lots of work on the main flowerbeds and war memorial beds. We also planted some donated fruit trees and unblocked a drain!

We were joined this time by a team from Marple Allotment Association, who did a lot of work to bring their fruit and veg plot in the park back to life.

We had an outdoor (socially distanced) tea break and park visitors kindly donated over £21 in our bucket. Thank you!

Read more about our task days here: https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021.html

[admin]

Task Day 17 April 2021

Friends of the Park officially get back to work at last!

Following clearance from the council to return to the park for our task days the weather played ball and treated us to some much needed sunshine.

The principal task was to get back on top of the main flowerbed maintenance but we also got stuck into treating of benches, removal of self-seeded saplings in the shrub beds and litter-picking throughout the park. We also planted some fruit bushes donated by a Marple resident and cleared out the Bowling Pavilion canopy ready for the start of the Bowling season.

Earlier this month we also got work back underway in the Bandroom Garden.

Read more about our task days here: https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2021.html

[admin]

A record of Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days in 2018 has now been migrated to their new website.

Another fine year! https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2018.html

[admin]

Thank you to local councillors and Marple Area Committee for funding repairs to the pathway in Marple Memorial Park requested by Friends of the Park!

[admin]

Friends of the Park are not able to do task days at the moment but have popped some new flags up recently:

[admin]

Friends of Marple Memorial Park Task Days during 2019 have now been migrated to their new web site.

What a good year that was compared to 2020!

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-2019.html

[admin]

Friends of Marple Memorial Park Website Upgrade

We can't do Task Days at the moment but it's been head-down for most of January 2021 here at The Marple Website working on the upgrade / migration of the Friends of Marple Memorial Park website. Still a long way to go to get all those amazing task days moved across and there are still some projects and events to add too but there's plenty to read about to be going on with...

https://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/

[admin]

Task Day 4 November 2020

With Lockdown 2 looming we decided a final tidy-up of the main flowerbeds and war memorial beds was essential in order to be in the best possible shape for this year's Remembrance, whatever that may be. The main activities were weeding, trimming and tidying the beds, raising a new Remembrance flag and adding fresh wreaths to the railings at the war memorial and the timeline. We also managed a litter-pick, filled in ruts caused by a police vehicle in the park and did a serious and long overdue hack-back of the rhododendrons in one of the shrub beds.

We were joined by council officer Wayne, who did a final picking of stones from the wildflower meadow area too. The council team were also out in force, clearing leaves from the main drive and car park.

Read more about our task days here: http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-in-2020.html







To learn more about what we do for the park check out our fantastic promotional video created by one of our regular volunteers:

[admin]

Task Day 24 October 2020

Better weather yesterday meant that we could at last get back onto the flowerbeds, where we finally managed to distribute the mushroom compost that was delivered too late to go on the beds earlier this year. We also worked on shrub beds by the side of Hollins House and down towards the band room. The usual litter pick was conducted, two Rowan trees donated by a member of the public were planted and the war memorial and noticeboards given a clean too.

Read more about our task days here: http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-in-2020.html





We also managed to get onto the wildflower meadow area at last and get some stone-picking done.



About the Wildflower Meadow

Our plans for the wildflower meadow had been severely disrupted by Covid19 and visitors to the park throughout lock-down and beyond may have wondered what's happening to the field used as a compound during the repairs to Lock 11 completed in May 2019. The Canal and River Trust had handed over funds and seed to Friends of the Park and Stockport Council's Neighbourhood Team in order to turn the area into a wildflower meadow and we were all set to sow the seed in late March. Like everything else, this was stopped in its tracks due to the pandemic but of course nature didn't take any notice and grass and weeds returned with a vengeance. Since restrictions eased the weather hasn't played ball very much but the area has been re-harrowed twice and the wildflower seed was sown recently.

Apart from picking stones that have risen to the surface due to harrowing and the rain, it's now a waiting game and, hopefully, as well as life getting back to normal in Marple as spring returns next year, we'll also be able to enjoy a great display of wildflowers in the park.

[admin]

Task Day 10 October 2020

The weather forecast for this weekend was far better at the start of the week, so we brought our planned task day forward. However, the park was so wet yesterday that we couldn't work on the grassed areas without doing damage, so we focused on tidying shrub borders that could be accessed from tarmac. This included the Infants Play Area, the border from the library woodland to the Band Room and we also made a start on the one next to Hollins House too.

Read more about our task days here: http://www.marplememorialpark.org.uk/task-days/task-days-in-2020.html