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 May 2024
Beautiful weather for our regular task day and it was great to see the Park being used to the full.
Our jobs included getting the beds ready for the summer flowers bought from the Scouts and Guides, which will go in next time. We also trimmed edges and hedges and actually needed to water the recently planted allotment area. We also tidied up some fallen branches in the woodland area.
Task Day 27 April 2024
Dry at last for a really good task day!
Some dry weather at last allowed us to have a concentrated attack on the weeds in the flowerbeds and to tidy up and prune the bushes near the Band Room. The wildflower bed is developing well now but as some will know this is a longer term project that takes time to give a colourful result. We were delighted to have four new volunteers to join our band of regulars. This meant we had over 20 working away in the park, so thanks to everyone and to those passers-by who put some much appreciated change into our collection box.
Just a note for those who have read the great article in Marple Review. We have, since this article was written, decided to keep with the pattern of two task days a month during Summer.
Task Day 13 April 2024
April showers don't stop our volunteers caring for the park
Despite a showery day lots of volunteers worked through the rain, concentrating on weeding all the flower beds.
We also planted seeds in the vegetable and fruit raised allotment beds, so we hope to get some produce growing later in the year.
Task Day 30 March 2024
End of an era for Friends of Marple Memorial Park
A fine sunny day and an excellent turnout of volunteers marked a changing of the guard for Friends of the Park. This was supposed to be the final task day that Mark and Gill would lead but unfortunately Gill had to be elsewhere due to a family illness and it was left to Mark to handover her trowel and his keys to incoming chairman Malcolm Allan.
Although Gill couldn't be there, it's great that Bob Wilson could, exactly 10 years to the day after he retired as the last fulltime Park Keeper.
Task Day 24 February 2024
The sunshine was a lovely welcome for our first task day of the year!
Our task days are off to a slow start this year due to other commitments of Mark and Gill who normally lead them. They are sadly winding down their involvement in the group over the coming couple of months, and this is expected to be the penultimate task day they will lead. The last should be Saturday 30 March, if other demands on their time allow.
Although the weather was great the park is still incredibly wet, so volunteers focused on removing the grass that has been taking hold on the French Boules Court, and a good cut-back and tidy-up of the War Memorial Beds. An overdue litter-pick was also completed and volunteers admired the tidy-up of our store during tea break!
New volunteer task leaders needed
The group is appealing for new volunteers who would like to get involved in leading task days. Spaces are currently available for task leader and power-tools training with the council on Saturday 20 April 2024 to get you started. So if this is of interest, now is the perfect time to sign-up! Please get in touch here.
Task Day 30 November 2023
Installation of Nativity Sculptures on Market Street
It's become a tradition for Friends of Marple Memorial Park to end our year by installing Wayne Chaisty's Nativity Sculptures in the Town Centre.
We took over the task of storing and managing the sculptures from Churches Together several years ago as they were having trouble handling them when stored at All Saints' Church. It's much easier for us to keep them at the park and we can transport them to Market Street without vehicles, so much greener too!
It was fun to supervise this small team of volunteers as they did their community service this morning!
