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 14 October 2023

A beautiful autumnal morning allowed us to crack on with park maintenance

Tasks today included transferring new topsoil to the Band Room garden, a good tidy-up of the allotment beds, plus regular maintenance on the main beds and war memorial beds.

Due to the amount of rain over the last few days it was too wet to treat benches but our dedicated bench volunteer wasn't lost for a job and got stuck into tidying bases instead.

Outdoor Exercise Equipment

We are sure many of you will be wondering what's happening with our outdoor exercise equipment project. Installation should have been completed a couple of weeks ago but unfortunately the Mag Bells unit was installed incorrectly. Thankfully we spotted this before tarmacking and work was stopped for investigations. The Mag Bells unit has now been removed and gone off-site for refurbishment. We understand it is due to return soon and then the final stages of the works can be completed and everything will be ready to use.

Task Day 30 September 2023

Task Day 30 September 2023Great to have two new volunteers join us as we begin to focus on getting ready for Remembrance

We turned our attention mostly back to the main flowerbeds and war memorial beds as Remembrance seems to be coming at us rather fast this year! Other work included our regular maintenance at the Band Room garden, sanding and treating benches, and cutting up of a large fallen branch in the canal-side woodland to create some extra wildlife habitat.

Thank you to park visitors who popped almost £30 in our collection bucket!

Task Day 26 September 2023

Today we strayed outside the park again to Oldknow Gardens

As many local people will know, Friends of the Park have maintained the Lock 17 bed since it was created way back in 2007.

There have been repairs ongoing next to the bed by a CRT contractor for many months and we were keen to get the bed sorted now that they've gone.

We had a good tidy up and mowed around the bed but we were very disappointed to discover what a poor job CRT's contractor has made of tidying up after themselves and how much rubbish they have left behind. We are very surprised CRT accept such slovenliness from their contractors.

We understand the council are meeting with the contractor on Friday and we hope this gets sorted quickly.

Task Day 9 September 2023

Task Day 9 September 2023Today our volunteers were mostly melting and had to finish early!

A lower turnout than usual due to holidays meant we were spread a bit thin and it was a little too warm to get very much done. Despite the growing heat we managed a to mow the band room garden and triangle, do some strimming, tidy the circular bed, the allotment beds and the wildflower bed too. When you say it quickly it sounds quite a lot!

Earlier this week we also took advantage of a cooler morning to fit some new nets to the basketball hoops with hooks the recently council fitted for us.

Task Day 12 August 2023

Lots of good work but we were rained off after tea break!

We dug up the last of the potatoes from the allotment beds and with bird-nesting season behind us it was good to get the Band Room hedge trimmed. Other volunteers were busy on the main flowerbeds and the war memorial hedge but not many photos taken due to rain stopping play early.

We were sad to see someone has vandalised one of the park benches and we will assess for repair.

Task Day 29 July 2023

The council fixed their tractor and cleared our green waste area at last, so we started filling it again!

Today's tasks included our regular maintenance of the Band Room garden and mowing around the long grass triangle - we do this so it looks like we've left it long intentionally rather than neglected it - we'd love some feedback on whether you like the long grass being left in the park or not?

We also got stuck into the shrubs and bushes at the front of Hollins House and the two beds adjacent to the car park, which we'd left a bit too long since the last time.

We did a litter-pick and a bit of strimming around various fixtures and fittings too. 

Thank you to park users who left almost £30 in our collection bucket.