A Busy Bank Holiday of Volunteering
THE HISTORY OF DIDSBURY PARK - WHERE DO YOU THINK THIS IS?
You may recall that last week's update contained a mystery historical picture which contained the title 'Didsbury Park', with the promise that all would be revealed this week!
I have attached the mystery picture again as a reminder in picture 1. We do actually get a big clue about its whereabouts from the ordnance survey map of 1897 - so I have attached it as picture 2. Does that help?
The answer is that picture 1 was taken looking down the road which was called Didsbury Park in 1897. However this road is better known today as Sandhurst Road. In 1897, the OS map shows that DIdsbury Park (the road) consisted of the road still known today as Didsbury Park and then it went around the corner nearest the park and continued from this junction down the road to Wilmslow Road.
There are some very interesting aspects of this old picture, Including the following:
It raises the question why on earth would you have a huge tree in the middle of a road junction? The answer is most likely because there was not much mechanical traffic which used this road during this period. As we have seen in previous pictures, around the turn of the century, horses were very dominant as a means of transport or people walked. Obviously today this tree is no longer in the middle of the road at the junction between Sandhurst Road and Didsbury Park. However it is very noticeable that the road not in a very good condition at the spot where the tree used to be.
Notice the Methodist Church (which still exists today - but not as a church) on left hand side, at the end of the road.
Just after the junction there is a gate leading into the side of the white house. The gateway and the house are both still there today!
The large tree on the left hand side nearest the camera is also still there (at a guess it is probably 150 years old by now). However because it is now a much bigger tree, you can see where alterations have had to be made to the wall in order to accommodate the increased size of the tree.
It is noticeable that the roadway nearest the camera, is narrower and looks like more of a track. This track would have eventually lead over the Poppy Bridge to Whitehall Farm on the other side of the railway line.
The railings of Didsbury Park (the park itself) can be seen on the right hand side of the picture, as can the high walls around Broome House, further down.
It is reasonable to assume from this picture that parts of Didsbury Park were taken, when Sandhurst was widened.
The OS map also shows the triangle section of the park which was sold off by MCC for housing development at a later date.
Thank you once again to Louise for her research and to Manchester Libraries for permission to share the pictures.
TODAY - BANK HOLIDAY
Despite today being a beautiful Bank Holiday we still had an amazing attendance of 22 volunteers who all turned up to work hard in the park this morning. We also had a very special treat when Grace turned up with some delicious home made ginger cup cakes. Thank you Grace - we really enjoyed these sitting in the sunshine at our break time.
TODAY - SHOW HOME OPENING
After many weeks of planning, designing and building, the new bug hotel was finally officially unveiled to the public and fellow volunteers today.
Picture 3 shows this 5 storey, architectural masterpiece, in all its glory, The picture captures the new hotel being lovingly surrounded by the proud team who created it. The picture shows Greg, Carl, Richard and Kevin who all had great fun on this project. Well done everybody and also a big thank you to Nico, who is captured in picture 4 with Carl, and who was also a great help in the latter stages.
Well done everybody - let's hope the bugs like it and turn up in their thousands!
TODAY - BUDDY AND LUCY MAKEOVER
Picture 5 shows Grace posing for a photo whilst resting on Buddy and Lucy. Grace and Chris and Shashvat had just finished replacing all the old woodchip surrounding the carving with a new supply of woodchip.
This was a great improvement - thank you!!
TODAY - WATERING, AND WEEDING
We did a lot of work today caring for the plants in the park which have been suffering from the recent dry, hot weather. Picture 6 shows Patrick watering the desperately dry plants at the Wilmslow Road entrance. Both Patrick and Sonia watered the key flower beds around the park and Chris and Shashvat kindly watered the plants in the cafe garden.
Most of the weeding took place today along the Flower Walk where Julie, Tristan, Joyce and Wendy made this flower bed look stunning. Sonia also worked hard weeding and watering the flower beds around Buddy and Lucy. Picture 7 shows Tristan and Wendy, picture 8 shows Julie, and picture 9 shows Grace taking the coffee/tea order from Joyce for her mid-morning break. There were lots of smiles in the sunshine today. Thank you all.
TODAY - PRUNING
Allan did a great job using the electric hedge trimmer to trim the remaining section of the hedge around the Bird Garden. He was also helped by Chris and Shashvat. Thank you guys this certainly made a huge improvement to how smart this hedging is now looking.
On the opposite side of the park Julie continued the pruning work from last week as she worked on the overgrown bushes along the Wilmslow Road path. Augustine, Kedir and Fasil rmoved all the waste to the temporary green waste pile behind the shelter (as our regular green waste skip did not turn up today).
Picture 10 shows Fasil and Kedir loaded up with green waste. Thank you all - this work is really making some great improvements along this path.
ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Carl N did a great job, standing in for Gary, in mowing the cricket square. Just like last week, as soon as the mowing was complete a family immediately moved on to the pitch to begin a game! Well done Carl - this new cricket pitch has certainly been a major success this year!
It was lovely to see Brenda with us again today, helping, as ever, to keep the Gillbrook Road entrance tidy. Thank you Brenda.
Thank you once again for such great support on a Bank Holiday.