Friends of Preston Park

Good news from Alan Griffiths of City Parks. Construction of the Petanque Terrain on bowling green no. 3 is due to start on Monday 16th May. The work is going to be carried out by one of the council’s highway contractors – Edburton Contractor Ltd. The whole of bowling green will be fenced off whilst construction takes place which all being well won’t take more than a couple of weeks, although we will have to let it settle for a while before opening.The Terrain will measure 15m x 32m in size and the rest of the old Bowling Green will be raised in level and re-seeded.

Thanks to Fred Hards for supplying these pics of the Easter Egg Hunt:

Those of you who put in the hours last Autumn to plant 1000s of bluebell bulbs in the Rock Garden will be heartened to see a return on your labours. These photos were taken on April 30th:

Around 300 children enjoyed our Easter Egg Quiz on Sunday. In sweltering weather, nearly all the entrants managed to find the answers to all 18 questions and won a Cadbury’s Creme Egg. Many also entered our drawing competition, with the chance to win a Mega Egg. Here are the winners …

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On May 1st at 6am, you have the opportunity to hear the birds of Preston Park without traffic noise, to identify bird songs and to find out more about the wildlife in the park. Meet at the rock garden chalet.

We are presenting, in conjunction with CityParks, an Easter Egg Hunt in the park on Easter Sunday, 24 April, from 11am. It’s for children up to and including the age of 12 and the event will be a quiz about different aspects of the park. There will be information points set up especially for the event on which will be the answers to the questions. For each correctly completed quiz sheet there will be a prize of a small Easter egg. There will also be the chance to enter a drawing competition – with a prize (in 2 age groups) for the best drawing about an aspect of the park. The aim is to have fun but also for children to engage with the park and to better understand and value the space. We’ll be there until the eggs run out . . .

You indicated on the questionnaires that were completed last year that you would like to see some sort of summer fete in the park. To that end, we intend to present PrestFest to be held on Saturday 27 August. We want the theme to be the park and its users as well things of local interest. The thought is to have a few ‘zones’ for the fete: a sports zone, fun zone and commercial zone. We’d value some help, so get in touch if you’d like to be part of our team. The planning is in its early stages so we’ll update you as things progress.

The CityParks department have had contractors look at the disused bowling-green with the intention of making it a pétanque terrain. At the moment they are waiting for a detailed estimate for the work. We’ll keep you posted.

The rock garden is looking particularly beautiful at this time of year. The bluebells that we all helped plant last autumn are looking healthy and should be in full flower before long. Look for photos on the website later in the spring. Andy Jeavons, the rock Garden’s chief gardener, has great news that the pump for the waterfall will be working again soon – the waterfall should be splashing away by early summer!