In September, twenty-four Brighton College students from Year 8 to L6 helped the regular volunteers in the Rose Garden. The students weeded, cut back ivy and cleared the paths diligently, scraping the stones, pulling weeds and brushing the walkways with large brooms. Their involvement and hard work were all the more appreciated as the tasks in the Rose Garden are numerous. It is not the first time students from the prestigious establishment have given a helping hand and we are always delighted to spend a few hours working alongside such a kind and pleasant group of young people. We are hopeful they will come again soon. Any other school interested in helping us out should get in contact via the website.
On a beautiful summers day, Alister Peters took 26 people on a tree walk around Preston Park. We started at the Rotunda by the largest Elm tree in the park and ended at the northern end of the park by Preston manor by the oldest Elm tree in the country. Alister knows the trees in the park well having worked for many years for Connick. This invaluable local knowledge made the tour absolutely fascinating. I had no idea just how many varieties of Elm there were and how different they all are. Alister also gave the walkers some sage advice about selecting a tree for one’s own garden. FoPP would like to thank Alister for sharing his knowledge and making the tour so interesting. I would unhesitatingly go on the tour again and would highly recommend it to anyone else. Sarah Mackenzie
In August our FoPP volunteers were pleased to welcome a group from the Network of International Women for Brighton & Hove to visit Preston Park. As part of their Healthy Living Programme the Network organises short weekly walks in the local area for interested members.
We led the group on a walking tour around the park, taking in as many of its beautiful and unique features as possible. The individuals in the group had previously visited the park but were fascinated to visit some completely unfamiliar pockets of interest. In particular we spent time inside the 13th century St Peter’s Church, enjoyed greatly by the group. we wandered through the plant beds, the Preston Manor walled garden and amongst new and ancient trees. The group also observed the huge range of sports and activities with facilities throughout the park. Unfortunately there was insufficient time to try out the adult gym!
Picture 1
The group returned to the rose garden in time to join the FOPP volunteers for their tea & coffee break in The Rotunda Cafe. There was much chat about our gardening practices throughout the park, and a real fascination for the roses, particularly the traditional English varieties.
Picture 2
Several of the group expressed interest in volunteer gardening and we look forward to them joining our FoPP volunteer groups around the park.
Volunteers looking after green spaces in Brighton and Hove were invited by their Rangers at Waterhall to meet Paul Gorringe, who is in charge of the local rewilding programme.
Waterhall was a golf course for seventy years and over the past four years the aim has been to restore the chalk grassland and improve habitats for multiple species. This project has been funded by National Lottery money and is led by the National Trust. No power tools are used, no pesticides, the work is done following the precepts of organic gardening. Multi-species grazing is done by twenty Sussex Red cattle, seven wild ponies and sheep are also brought in. Rangers Paul and Mike are helped by zealous volunteers who cut, clear, restore and encourage natural processes for the landscape to recover and reconnect with itself.
We looked at a large variety of moths collected (and released), wildflowers and ant hills. Paul and Mike run educational programmes for school children and are very keen to educate and show the importance of wild spaces in our lives. On this note we were reminded that we should keep our dogs on lead during the breeding season which runs from beginning of March to end of July as dogs run into thickets and bushes and disturb nesting and young wildlife. From a thousand dogs a day visiting Waterhall four years ago, numbers are down to two-hundred-and-fifty a day. Paul explained various reasons why dogs’ behaviour should be monitored by their owners, such as the presence of cattle, school children, wildlife habitat and even the preservation of the ph of the soil which is altered by dogs’urine and excrement! As Paul said, most dog owners are obliging, but some abuse the Rangers or take signage down, not considering that this rewilding project is very fragile and reliant on everybody’s decent behaviour to be a truly successful story and a legacy for future generations.
Paul Gorringe is always looking for new volunteers so if you would like to know more about volunteering at Waterhall please get in touch with him at wildingwaterhall@brighton-hove.gov.uk
Friends of Preston Park next walk is the General Tree Walk with Alister Peters on Saturday 9 August, 13:00-14:30, starting at the Rotunda Cafe. Not to be missed! Book now on our website.
If you are keen to try some gardening in Preston Park we welcome volunteers on Tuesdays 10 to 1pm in the Rose Garden or on Thursdays 10 to 1pm in the Rockery. Please come along and meet the teams.
To mark the 15th anniversary of Friends of Preston Park (FoPP) a Big Brighton Cake Bake was organised on June 8th. Celebrating the first of this free and fun event participants were required to bring a homemade cake and over 50 were displayed, showing extreme creative and imaginative designs, with influences from the Middle East to Italy and Britain. Pistachio, walnuts, saffron, pineapple, strawberries, apples, caramel, chocolate, every flavour one could dream of was there to share and enjoy and all the bakers did themselves proud. A small competition was held to judge for ‘Most Brighton Cake’,’ Most Creative Cake’ and ‘Most Elegant Cake and the winners were very worthy. However, it was felt that next time we should add some more categories as the standard and quality was so high. Participants were able to share the cakes amongst themselves and there was still plenty to take home after. Sue Shepherd, who launched the Friends’ Group fifteen years ago, talked about our achievements in the Park, and was echoed by Kerry Pickett, current co-chair of FoPP alongside Isabelle Martin, who talked about our present commitment and challenges in 2025. We thank everyone who came along to help on the day to set up and clear up and a big thank you to Fitnesshub for letting us use their outdoor space! Much appreciated.
Sussex Community NHS Foundation
We need to send out a big thank you to the finance section of the Sussex Community NHS Foundation who came along last month to spend the morning helping to weed and deadhead the roses in the Rose Garden. As part of their team building/company day out, the group gave up their time to attack the bindweed and help prepare the roses for an anticipated second round of blooms this summer. Having groups give up their time even for one day in the year makes a huge difference to the work in the garden so if you know of other companies who might be interested please get them to contact us at: info@friendsofprestonpark.com
SSEiB – Rose Garden
For the second year running The Rose Garden was entered for the South and Southeast in Bloom Award. Having won Level 4 last year, we hope to achieve the top level, Level 5, in 2025. For this purpose, the volunteers followed a course on pruning, replanted over 200 roses, fertilised all roses, and followed David Austin Roses, the rose grower’s instructions on deadheading and weeded the rose beds. With the dry and hot weather, we’ve experienced it had been necessary to water the roses weekly and fortunately the pump is working so we can use the water from the Wellesbourne river which runs under the Park.
Visitors may have noticed the east and west herbaceous borders, which have been replanted and looked after by two very keen and knowledgeable volunteers. Most of the plants you see in the borders have been grown from seeds by volunteers and we welcome any gift of plants if you have any to spare.
We are grateful to our City Parks Ranger, Neil Doyle, who came along on several occasions this year with his fantastic team of volunteers to clear the paths, weed the rose beds and tackle the bindweed in the outer hedge. Some of this work was also achieved with the help of volunteers joining Neil again from companies using the opportunity to help us with a team building day out. Neil’s group removed invasive plants from the edges round the Rose Garden and tackled the bramble and ivy in the Coronation Garden as well as clearing the paths of dead leaves and weeds, making it safer.
We are always looking for more volunteers and welcome anyone who would like to help us in the Park. Our volunteer sessions are in the morning on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. For more information, please check out our website.
SSEiB – The Rockery
For the first time in many years The Rockery was also entered for the SSEIB award. With its colourful displays, enchanting trees and carp in the pond, The Rockery has hidden sections to discover if you can face climbing the winding rock path to the top. The Rockery is a continuous source of wonderment, entertainment and creativity for photographers and painters. SSEIB judging took place in June and the results will be announced in September. We wish both The Rockery and the Rose Garden the best of luck.
Petanque Court
We are pleased to see that the Petanque Court surface has been repaired and a fence put up thanks to the generosity of Edburton, the construction company employed by the council to construct the new road layout on Preston Road. As part of their community engagement programme, Edburton’s agreed to relay a new surface on the Petanque Court and added a fence to delineate the court better. It is hoped people will realise that it is an area for Petanque and not for football or cycling.
Rose Garden Toolbox
FoPP would like to once again thank Pride for the donation that is allowing us to buy our own toolbox to keep our gardening tools and watering cans in. So far, we have had to rely on volunteers to keep FoPP tools at home and bring them weekly to the Park. The toolbox will be situated in the Rose Garden. Any donation of tools will be gladly received.
Community Book Swap Box
Our Rose Garden Community Book Swap Box suffered an act of vandalism in May. However, a local cabinet maker kindly offered to repair it and it has been filled with books once again. Please do not hesitate to leave books or take some. We are now investigating the purchase of a second book box to house children’s books. If anyone has an old bedside cabinet with a door that could be converted please can you send us an email at: info@friendsofprestonpark.org.uk
Rockery Walk
Our next exciting walk is The Rockery Walk with Andy Jeavons, Head Gardener, on July 10th, 18.00 -19:30, followed by Alastair Peters’ General Tree Walk on August 9th, 13.00 -14:30, starting at the Rotunda Cafe. For both walks please visit the FoPP website https://www.friendsofprestonpark.org/ to register and pay £3. You can also pay cash on the day of the walk. All the money is used to buy tools and plants for Preston Park.
Welcome to our first Friends of Preston Park (FoPP) newsletter of the year. This is a roundup of recent news to keep you informed about what has been happening in the Park recently, and our upcoming events.
Bracing the cold weather in November, Sue Shepherd led her renowned History Walk of Preston Park and as ever it was a success. Sue’s expertise and knowledge is second to none and if you didn’t know the Romans were here before you in this neighbourhood, make sure you keep an eye on our website for the next History Walk so that you can sign up and learn all there is to know about the area from Sue. Sue will provide many exciting facts, with visuals and her delightful anecdotes will enthral you.
The Rose Garden volunteers got a treat when Richard Stubbs, from the internationally famous rose grower David Austin, came in January to deliver a workshop on how to prune the long, high and scraggy looking roses on the outer beds. Equipped with our brand-new knowledge, we have now trimmed and shaped the rose bushes so that the ensemble looks less dishevelled and more tamed. We are hoping this will also have a positive effect on the number of blooms we get this year.
You may also have noticed that the east and west herbaceous borders have been cleared of weeds and replanted since the spring. These areas have long been neglected as we haven’t had enough volunteers. However, having decided it was time to appraise the Rose Garden as a whole, meant reassessing the borders and working to make them look as good as the rose part of the area. Two very dedicated volunteers, Janet and Chris, took the mistreated borders in hand and are working relentlessly to bring them back to some former glory. Nick Delves, assistant head gardener and in charge of the summer borders at Nymans (National Trust), was invited to give his expert advice on how to design our borders and the choice of plants, bringing colours and pollinating insects to the area. We are extremely privileged to have had his invaluable input and have invited him to come back in June to see the borders fully in bloom.
In terms of the roses, the outer beds are getting a big make over. Thanks to the never-ending generosity of David Austin we received 200 new roses this spring to replace some very old and spent bushes. FoPP agreed to fund new soil (Buckingham Rose Soil from Hill Soil, Horsham) to give these new roses a good start. In February our Ranger, Neil Doyle, brought along a corporate team from Ibis Hotels who helped dug out the old soil and poured heavy wheelbarrows of new soil into the beds before the new roses were put in place. City Parks Rangers’ volunteer team and our amazing Preston Park groundsmen gave the Tuesday Rose Garden volunteers a helping hand in digging holes and planting roses. We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to help with this. It was hard work, and every helping hand was greatly welcomed and appreciated. We couldn’t have got it all done without you!
We are so grateful to these guest volunteer teams who helped with the planting of the new roses as well as the maintenance of the Coronation Garden. It would not have been possible to undertake such major tasks without their input. Parks throughout the city are gradually losing their flower beds as there aren’t enough staff (or money to employ more staff) so if you would like to volunteer a couple of hours a week helping with the flower beds we would love to hear from you. No previous knowledge required. Just come and meet us on Tuesdays 10 to 1pm in the Rose Garden. Tea, coffee, biscuits and tools provided. Just bring a pair of gardening gloves and your own tools if you prefer. (You can sign up via the FoPP website).
You may have also noticed the beautiful crocus’ that are currently giving us such pleasure. Having donated to the British Polio Fellowship we were given thousands of bulbs to plant and I think we can agree they look amazing. We have also put Yellow Rattle seed down. This was grown by the Wildflower Conservation Society based at Stanmer Park. Hopefully, this will also add to the biodiversity of the area.
Regarding the Rotunda Pond, just to let everyone know that we didn’t have time to get it re-rendered before the return of the newts and frogs. Therefore, the work is on hold until the end of July when they should have gone again and we will drain down, mend and replant the pond in time for winter. Can we remind everyone not to let their dogs or children to enter the pond. It is dangerous and the wildlife really don’t like it!
Finally, we are putting together our list of FoPP events for 2025. If you would like to attend, please sign up via the FoPP website. We ask for a small donation to attend and this money is used to buy things for the plant such as plants, tools, etc.. So please do come along, enjoy the park and help us financially keep the park looking the best we can make it.
Our new event calendar will be published shortly. Please keep an eye our our website, Facebook and Insta pages.
If you have any questions, concerns or would like to help us in anyway, please contact us at info@friendsofprestonpark.org
Each year the Rotary Club launches the Purple Crocus Corm planting to raise awareness of the Rotary fight for a polio free world. The springtime gorgeous displays of purple crocus corms remind us of the need to eradicate the life threatening and disabling polio virus.
Two million purple corms are available nationwide and you will see many volunteers planting them throughout Brighton and Hove green spaces in October. The first ones were planted by CityParks rangers and volunteers on Friday in St Ann’s Well and by Patcham roundabout. Friends of Preston Park are delighted to take part in this wonderful campaign by planting 8 000 bulbs on the south side of the park and by the Rotunda Cafe.
The crocus corm variety this year is Crocus tommasinianus – Ruby Giant (deep purple).
When a child receives their life-saving polio drops on mass polio immunisation days, their little finger is painted with a purple dye, so it is clear they have received their polio vaccine- hence the crocus connection.
Please donate today to protect a child. Every donation to the Rotary Club will be trebled by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, so every £1 will become £3.
You may have noticed that over the last eighteen months the Rotunda Pond looked neglected and overgrown. A lot of debris and rotting vegetation turned the water cloudy and unhealthy, with the surface covered by invasive duckweed. Leaks have made it necessary to top up the water constantly.
Fortunately work has commenced on the pond as this is the right time of year to do so as the amphibian life are now in the rose beds. The debris and dead and decaying vegetation have been removed and next step is to repair the pond liner, by identifying leaks and draining where necessary. The work should be completed in time for spring.
The Petanque Court
The Petanque Court, sandwiched between the Tennis Courts and the new Outdoor Gym, is growing in popularity with local residents and U3a players. It is a very social sport which encourages interaction with others, teamwork, strategy, competition and is a lot of fun. The Court at Preston Park needs resurfacing as it is quite uneven and shows wear, having lost some of its surface sand. Sadly most of the damage is caused by people using the court for cycling when we have our own velodrome.
A new group of volunteers, the Preston Park Petanque Group, has been set up to undertake the renovation of the court. This involves weeding, edging, filling the depressions with limestone and fine gravel, raking and compacting the new material to create a firm, playable surface. The general and ongoing maintenance will involve cleaning, levelling and re-gravelling when necessary to keep the court in good condition.
If you would like more information about the Petanque Court or would be interested in volunteering or just finding people with whom to play please email at info@friendsofprestonpark.org
Please be reminded that our AGM will be taking place on Friday 15 November at 5-7.30pm at St Peter Cricket Club. Steve Geliot, who initiated the “Save our Starlings” campaign, will be giving a presentation on Brighton starling population. Tea and cakes will be available.
Friends of Preston Park entered the Rose Garden into the South and South East in Bloom 2024 competition and we are delighted to announce that the Rose Garden was awarded Level 4 – “Thriving” in the “It’s Your Neighbourhood” category. With 4,500 entries participating nationwide and over 300 locally this was a very tough competition and as it was the first time we entered the Rose Garden we can honestly say we are absolutely bowled over with this wonderful achievement. We would like to thank all who contributed to this success; individuals and local businesses who gave us funds to buy tools and plants, David Austin the Rose Grower who donated roses, CityParks for mulch in the winter, our amazing team of volunteers who every Tuesday weed and lovingly tend the plants, and all the residents who enjoy the garden responsibly.
We are hoping to enter the Rose Garden into SSEIB again in 2025 and aim at achieving the highest level, Level 5 – Outstanding, following the advice we were given for improvement. We need to improve the soil of the Rose Garden with some new soil and fertiliser and also tend the herbaceous borders. The volunteers are very keen to replant the East and West borders alongside the Rose Garden, which have been neglected for years. It is a mammoth task, which we started in spring and you may have noticed the new salvias and fuchsias among other plants.
Brighton Painting Group met at the Rockery on a sunny Saturday morning. Twenty artists gathered to capture the light on the colourful shrubs and flower beds. The lilies on the pond inspired many painters, as well as the stone paths leading to the south side of the garden.
Brighton Painting Group meets every third Saturday of the month in a different location in Brighton and Hove for plein air painting. Follow them on Facebook and Instagram.
On a sunny afternoon this week, around 20 people were led by Alister Peters, expert arborist,on a very interesting and enjoyable walk around many of the different trees in Preston Park.
In much of Brighton, sycamores and elms are the only large trees that can withstand thechalky soils and salty air. However, Preston Park is some distance from the sea and in a valley with more fertile soils, so enabling a wide variety of trees to flourish. Alister showed us how to identify a selection of them.
The walk began at the Rotunda Café, where a clump of trees includes a purple-leafed plumthat is often mistaken for a copper beech. (Both copper and common beeches are also growing in the park.) We then walked across the grass behind the café to look at elms, a red horse chestnut, common and black walnut trees, and a sweetgum that is particularly beautiful in the autumn when its leaves turn red and purple. In the area around the Tile House, we looked at hornbeams, a dawn redwood (a deciduous conifer), a larch, a Turkish hazel, and two trees that are easy to confuse – a purple maple and a purple sycamore.
Among the other trees was a sycamore whose trunk was covered with ivy. But, as Alister explained, this is not a parasitic plant and it benefits insects and birds, so it needs to be managed rather than removed. By contrast, the mistletoe attached to a silver maple opposite the Chalet Café is parasitic.
There are numerous different types of elm in the park, some of which have been bred to be resistant to the elm disease that has destroyed millions of elms in the UK over the last 50 years. Very sadly, the disease is now destroying trees in Preston Park and elsewhere in Brighton & Hove, as is ash dieback. However, one of the ‘Preston Twins’, an English elm planted in the early 17th century, has so far survived. Another survivor is the Chinese elm in the Coronation Garden. Almost totally destroyed by the great storm of 1987, it is now a largetree with an impressive witch’s broom.
The walk ended at the gilded sculpture created from the Preston Twin that succumbed to elm disease in 2019. But all around us were trees, such as an Indian bean tree, a flowering magnolia, and a fruit-laden black mulberry tree in the Walled Garden, that are flourishing – and, happily for us, will continue to do so in the future.
The next FoPP event will be a walk in the park with former CityParks manager, Alan Griffiths on Thursday, 12 September. Please sign up on Eventbrite via the FoPP website if you would like to attend and hear what Alan has to say.
