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.
Preparations for Jubilee Bed relocation begin
During today's task day we started to move some of the plants we want to save from the Jubilee Flowerbed outside the library. When the new Pool and Hub is built this bed, along with its metal sculpture, will need to be re-sited. We tidied the bed along from the band room ready for some of the plants to be relocated into there.
At this time of year there's always a lot of weeding and edging to be done, and we continued the rolling programme of re-treating the benches with preservative and did the sign over the kiddies playpark too. Our team did their usual maintenance of the allotment fruit and veg area, which is thriving at present.
One of our photos also shows the group relaxing at our break time and enjoying the views across the park.
Benches posts and signs
Task Day 13 July 2024
A task day was held on Saturday 13 July but no report or photos have been provided.
Deputy Mayor finds families treasure Memorial Park and its volunteers!
This week we held the annual Treasure Hunt, with 18 clues round the park for letters which spelt out a mystery word. The reward was chocolate money for those who got it right (or who made a good effort!) We know this is hugely enjoyed by families who attended in their numbers. Thanks to the members of the team who organised this free event and to our generous sponsors Nurture Nursery. Thanks also for the support we had from Sarah and Emma from the Coffee Bean Dream and Kevin from the Carnival Committee.
We were delighted to be joined by the Deputy Mayor of Stockport, Cllr Kerry Waters, who was very impressed by the park, our volunteers efforts and the event itself. We are always grateful for Stockport MBC support in this way.
Meanwhile, we also managed to have a full task day with lots of volunteers as well as those on the Treasure Hunt. We tidied up the bed at the back of the toilet block, and weeded and levelled up a bed on the clinic side of Hollins House, where some soil seems to have been dumped over the months. This bed is now ready for some planting next time. The fruit and veg beds are coming on well and we did some ever needed weeding on our flower beds.
Special task day to create small beds at the COVID Memorial
We recently decided to add a bit of plant life to the COVID memorial in the park. On 21 June 2024 a small group of volunteers put in a few rosemary plants (signifying remembrance) either side of the memorial. It's also worth mentioning that the large H section top capping stone was found to have become loose. This is now in safe storage until it can be properly refixed.
Follow this link to read more about the COVID Commemoration Project.
Mixed weather but we're ready for Marple Carnival!
This weekend's task day was punctuated with showers but also lovely sunshine. We wanted to get the park in good shape for next weekend's Carnival, so we did some weeding and edging on the flower beds, and trimmed some hedges. We also did our normal litter pick and tended the allotment beds, which are now showing some good growth. Some of the slats on the play park fence needed to be replaced too. Meanwhile, we were pleased to see that the Council has repaired the roof of the former Bowling Pavilion after we spotted a damaged ridge tile.
Could it be true that the sun shines on the righteous?
A glorious sunny day for our task day. The recent warm wet weather had meant rapid growth of weeds as well as growth of the flowers and shrubs in the flower beds and the allotment beds. An excellent turnout of volunteers did much hoeing, weeding, edging and careful hedge trimming as well as planting the new bedding plants.
We tidied up the wooded area by cleaning tree trunks, pulling up saplings and doing some pruning. The grass in the band garden was mowed and the area tidied up. Litter picking, clearing round the main park entrance and a major snail hunt within the hostas in the flower beds were other tasks successfully carried out. A really good and enjoyable task day.
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.
