Our Projects in Marple Memorial Park
The Friends of Marple Memorial Park have had amazing success with their projects in the park, thanks largely to the great support from local people, other voluntary organisations and the Marple business community. You can read more about these successes here.
New moveable goalposts
New moveable 5-a-side goalposts installed
The new 5 a-side goals have been installed in their new location. There are two sets of sockets, so the goals can be moved back and forth between two positions in order to allow the ground to recover. There are some installation issues currently being discussed with the council but the goals are ready to be used.
Basketball Nets
New hoops and nets for the Basketball Court
Sometimes a park improvement only needs to be a small thing!
New basketball nets fitted by Friends of the Park is one of our lowest budget and quickest projects ever, and new hoops are on their way!
Refurbishment of the Stocks
Refurbishment of Marple's Stocks
In 2004, during the very earliest days of Friends of Marple Memorial Park, local man Tony Heginbotham created some new replica timbers for us made from reclaimed softwood. Tony did a brilliant job and despite being softwood they have lasted nearly 20 years before beginning to disintegrate over the last couple of years.
We decided in 2023 that the time had come to make some new replacements and Terry Wood, one of our original volunteers when we were first formed in 2003, agreed to take on the task. As we have a little more money than in those early days, we chose to make the new ones in hardwood. So these latest versions will probably outlast most of our current volunteers!
Outdoor Exercise Equipment
15 November 2024: City Bike removed for repair
The council has advised Friends of the Park today that the City Bike has been temporarily removed for repair of the pedal unit, which was leaking oil.
We are advised that the bike will be repaired and reinstalled asap.
Outdoor Exercise Equipment Project update: 5 August 2024
We have been waiting (not so patiently) since February for bespoke buffers to be fitted to the Magnetic Bells because they were installed incorrectly. We are glad we can at last advise that these were fitted late last week. There remain a number of more minor snagging issues and we are waiting for an action plan from the council on these.
Allotment Bed Refurbishment
New raised beds supported by Stockport Hydro
We're kicking this new project off in 2023 by building two new raised beds. The first was constructed in January and February using recycled materials from last year's Marple School Gardens Project. We had always planned to recycle the materials from this project in the park and taking over the allotment beds has become the perfect opportunity.
For help with materials for the second raised bed we submitted a grant application to the Stockport Environmental Challenge 2023 in January and we were delighted to learn that this was successful. On 17 March 2023 we received funding of £500 towards the cost of materials including sleepers, fixings and top soil for our second raised bed.