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.
Three more Town Centre benches knocked off the list!
Another three Town Centre benches were sanded and treated by Friends of the Park today, as we gradually make our way towards Stockport Road. Special thanks today for refreshments from Aggie's Bar and to Forever Yours of Cheshire Bridal Shop for helping us out with parking because the car parks were all full.
A huge thank you to the two people who donated £130 + Gift Aid between them via Local Giving after seeing this article too!
Squeezed in another Task Day with only 24 hours notice!
As the weather was so good we organised today's task day with only 24 hours notice, so some of our volunteers couldn't make it. However, there were enough to make a difference and the Allotment Team were out in force working on their plot. As well as working on the flowerbeds, we pulled a pile of self-seeded saplings from several of the shrub beds.
Thank you to park visitors for just over £11 left in our collection bucket!
Another busy day in the park with lots of work completed in several areas...
While one team focused on a further tidy-up and maintenance of the main flowerbeds and the war memorial beds, another scoured the top half of the area used for the Lock 11 repairs for stones that could damage the council's mower again (they keep rising to the surface). The top third of this area should then be mown to return it to grass, while the rest is to be left wild and, hopefully, the wildflower seed we sowed in the autumn of last year will put on a better display than it is currently doing.
At the same time others were working on clearing weeds, grass and moss from around and under benches and the steps down to the library, and on the allotment plot too.
Thank you to generous park users, who popped over £34 in our collection bucket!
A couple more Town Centre Benches treated while it's not raining!
We thought Derby Way would be quiet on a Sunday morning but there were lots of people out and about while we sanded and treated the two benches there. It was good to see both cafes being well used and thank you to the Golden Plate and The Locks Coffee House and Bar for their generous provision of refreshments as we finished our chores.
A big thanks also to the kind gentleman who donated £20 to Friends of the Park!
Town Centre Bench Refurbishments
At last Friends of Marple Memorial Park have been able to get our 2021 Town Centre Bench maintenance underway.
Thanks to the pandemic and lockdown restrictions we were unable to do any maintenance in 2020, so they need more work than normal since we refurbished them all between 2015 and 2019. It was great to get the first four under our belt and also to receive some very appreciative comments from passing members of the public.
We were also treated to tea, coffee and scones from All Things Nice and a wonderful Gelato ice cream from Cocolato, formerly the Magnificent Chocolate Company.
Commemorative Bench in Memorial Park
We also managed to finish the addition of a new commemorative plaque in memory of Nancy Adams to one of the benches in the park already sponsored by the Tait family. As well as paying for the new plaque, which we fitted, the family also made a very generous donation towards our maintenance materials for all benches.
We were delighted by how many people thanked us for our efforts today!
Tasks included cutting down a dead willow in the woodland area and using the arisings to create a bug hotel, continuing our catch-up on bench refurbishments, litter-picking, clearing broken glass and lots of work on the main flowerbeds and war memorial beds. We also planted some donated fruit trees and unblocked a drain!
We were joined this time by a team from Marple Allotment Association, who did a lot of work to bring their fruit and veg plot in the park back to life.
We had an outdoor (socially distanced) tea break and park visitors kindly donated over £21 in our bucket. Thank you!
