Friends of Preston Park

It’s coming up to that time again . . . Halloween . . . so, as we always do at this time of year, we are preparing for the Preston Park Halloween Lantern Walk.

We’d love to see you there – it’s a free, family event designed for accompanied children up to the age of thirteen. We’d like you to bring your home-made lanterns (no naked flames please, perhaps you would use battery-operated lights) and, if they want, children can dress up in scary costumes. Adults too can do their bit to scare away park demons by coming in fancy dress.

It’s on Saturday 29 October at the men’s bowls pavilion.

From 6pm there will be dry ice, scary music, Laura Brett – a story-teller of (not too) scary stories, and there will be the French Revolution stand selling sweet and savoury crepes and hot drinks.

At 7pm we’ll walk around the dark park with our lanterns to frighten away ghoulies and monsters.

After the walk there will be a prize awarded for the best children’s lantern, the best children’s costume and the best adult costume.

We’ll be there . . . will you?

Hearty thanks to this year’s sponsors: Sainsbury’s Local, Preston Park and Fox & Sons.

Winner in the Recreation category and overall winner:

Winner in the Landscape category:

Winner in the Sport category:

Winner in the Nature category:

To see all the shortlisted entries, click on the links below:

Landscape category

Recreation category

Sport category

Nature category

As part of the city’s Heritage Weekend celebrations, Andy Jeavons will be conducting free tours around the Rock Garden this Thursday, Friday and Saturday (the 8th, 9th and 10th). Meet at noon by the little house in the Rock Garden. It’s a lovely tour, so if you haven’t been on one yet it’s worth going along.

Also Sue Shepherd from Friends of Preston Park will be conducting another free Illustrated History of Preston Park walk with fascinating info and wonderful old photos of the park. The walk is this Saturday, 10th September, meet at 2.30pm at the Rotunda cafe.

Not part of this Heritage Weekend but back by popular demand, tree experts Alister Peters and Peter Bourne will conduct another free tour of the rare and magnificent Trees of Preston Park. Alister and Peter know the trees in the park extremely well – they will amaze and delight you with the stories behind our wonderful trees. The walk’s on Saturday 17 September, meet at noon at the Rotunda cafe.

From the hundreds of entries that have been received to the Preston Park Photographic Competition, we have created shortlists of the seven best photos in each of four categories: landscape, recreation, sport and nature.

There will be an exhibition of the shortlisted entries in the Men’s Bowls Pavilion on Saturday 17th and Sunday 18th September from 11am – 4pm on each day.

Come and vote on what you feel is the best photo in each of the categories.

There will be a prize for the best photo in each category, and a grand prize for the overall winner. We also aim to produce a 2017 calendar of the most popular images.

Blimey, is it that time already? No not yet, but we’re planning it now. We’ve decided on the evening of Saturday 29 October, with the evening starting at 6pm. It’s a free event of course and is for families.

This time though, we’ve decided to open the fancy dress to parents as well as children – we noticed how many of you love to dress up! So there’ll be a prize for best children’s costume, a prize for best children’s lantern – and a prize for best adult costume.

There will be a children’s storyteller and, from 5.30pm, a food van selling sweet and savoury crepes, as well as hot drinks. We’ll send you a reminder before the event.

 

The park will soon have its own pet for a couple of months. A Snowdog will be tethered to the south entrance to the park from the end of September to the end of November. It will be one of 46 Snowdogs positioned around the city. The reason for them? Well, they’re just fun – and at the end of their time they will be auctioned off – proceeds to The Martlets Hospice.

Attached are the minutes of the recent committee meeting:

FoPP meeting minutes 03082016

Our series of park walks for 2016 is well under way but the following walks are still to come. Each is led by a park expert.

Thurs 2 June
Trees of Preston Park. Meet 6.30pm at the Rotunda.

Weds 8 June
Greater Park Walk. Meet 6.30pm at the Rotunda.

Thurs 30 June
Rock Garden Walk. Meet 6.30pm at the Rock Garden.

Sat 2 July
History of Preston Park Walk. Meet 11am at the Rotunda.

Tues 26 July
Rock Garden Walk. Meet 6.30pm at the Rock Garden.

Sun 14 August
Rock Garden Walk. Meet 12 noon at the Rock Garden.

This is a free family event.

Come and enjoy the beautiful house and grounds of Preston Manor. The Manor will be offering free admission and a chance to see their witchcraft display.

Discover the exciting results of the park’s archaeological survey. See a dig in progress. Examine ancient artefacts from the area.

Visit the St Peter’s, Preston Park Grand Sale of cakes, books, plants and bric-a-brac, along with churchyard tours arranged by St Peter’s churchyard volunteers.

Take the chance to try croquet free of charge and treat yourself to a cream tea.

Take one of the tours of the Walled Garden where there will be a sale of plants and savoury foods. The beekeeper will exhibit the beehives in the garden.

Challenge yourself with a quiz about the local area from the Friends of Preston Park.