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 10 September 2022
Hedge-trimming and new raised beds on the agenda
Friends of the Park were busy in the park again today, and with hedge trimming at the Band Room a little bit overdue we were delighted with the performance of our new battery-powered hedge cutters purchased with our Stockport CAN Fund Award back in May this year. Volunteers also got stuck into maintenance of the main flowerbeds, which are now starting to turn.
As autumn approaches it's also time to begin dismantling the School Gardens and St. Mary's responded very quickly to our request to remove plants, so theirs was the first to go. All plants are being reused by the schools and we have plans for the backing boards to reappear in the park soon. We are also recycling the timber and sleepers at the allotment bed in front of Hollins House. This follows on from Marple Allotment Association giving up the beds after more than 10 years. So we are planning to give them a boost by creating raised vegetable beds at the rear.
Infants Play Area picnic bench tops
On Friday, following the great work done by AstraZeneca to create hard-standings under the benches, we installed one of the picnic bench top that we've had in our store for a while. The first one is a little town-scape that is perfect for toy vehicles. The second, which should be installed soon, is a bit more educational.
The tops have been funded by our 50-50 Club and we hope that families with young children enjoy them.
Thank you to Park Users who popped over £18 in our collection bucket!
Special Task Day 31 August 2022
AstraZeneca volunteers help out in the park!
Friends of the Park were pleased to welcome 21 AstraZeneca employees to Marple Memorial Park today as part of a scheme to give back to the community. It was certainly a great benefit for us to receive help with painting of the Infants Play Area fence and pruning of four large shrub beds. The volunteers also tackled a job we'd been planning to do ourselves, which was to create new hard-standings under the two Infants Play Area picnic benches. This was a real bonus as they paid for the materials as well as doing a great job!
The whole event was organised and facilitated by a company called Employee Volunteering, who we were very impressed with and would highly recommend to other groups like ours.
Task Day 29 August 2022
Lock 17 on Oldknow Gardens
Friends of Marple Memorial Park have strayed outside the park today and had a good tidy-up of Lock 17 on Oldknow Gardens. Did you know that Friends of the Park have looked after Lock 17 since it was created in 2007. It's been such a busy summer that we let things go a bit but all caught up now. Here are some before and after photos. Isn't that better!
Task Day 27 August 2022
A catch-up with chores in the Infants Play Area
Today we focused on the Infants Play Area, with a good tidy-up of shrubs and more fence painting. Of course there was work done on the main flowerbeds too, and also at the toilet block, the Reading Circle, on the shrubs around Hollins House and litter picking. We also had a special treat at tea break, with an amazing pork pie and fruit tart from the wonderful Archer's Bakery.
Thank you to park users who donated almost £12 in our bucket!
A catch-up from July 2022
We did also have a task day on Saturday 30 July, when volunteers did a lot of work on the Allotment beds. These are returning to our care after being looked after by Marple Allotment Association since 2011. In addition, we've been beavering away on bench maintenance throughout the park too.
Task Day 16 July 2022
All hands on the flowerbeds to get ready for a Picnic in the Park!
An early start today due to the forecast heatwave saw most of our volunteers pile onto the main flowerbeds in order that they will look their best next Sunday 24th July, when the Brass Bands of Marple will be playing their Picnic in the Park concert to commemorate the park's 100th birthday.
Other tasks included bench maintenance, Band Room garden maintenance, watering of the new School Gardens, hedge trimming in the Infants Play area and clearing stray brambles along the woodland path in advance of the Family Treasure Hunt next Saturday.
Thank you to park visitors who deposited over £21 in our collection bucket!
Task Day 25 June 2022
A wide variety of jobs tackled in the park today
Our volunteers were all over the place today, with mowing and strimming in the Band Room garden, treating benches, trimming hedge and grass borders, weeding flowerbeds, watering new plants, clearing shrubs obstructing the handrails in front of Hollins House, picking litter and even painting the Infants Play Area fence ready for our School Gardens Project.
The park is looking amazing, thank you to the park visitors who popped almost £18 in our collection bucket and obviously agree.
