A Walk Through Time, The Flower Walk and a Month of Milestones
THE HISTORY OF DIDSBURY PARK - THE FLOWER WALK
Unfortunately we cannot easily determine the exact date of the historical picture we have selected this week from Louise's archive, but as it again contains a lady in a similar outfit to the 1907 picture we are assuming (rightly or wrongly) that is is also from the Edwardian period. Picture 1 entitled the Flower Walk has some fascinating contents:
One of the first impressions is how formal and stunning the Flower Walk looked at this time. You can see the rather formally dressed lady promenading along it in the distance. We have been striving for many years to transform this flower bed from the decayed state it was in 2014 to something like its former glory. Thanks to the expertise and hard work of our volunteers I think everybody will agree that the current flower walk is pretty amazing too! The current Flower Walk helped considerably to enable the RHS judge last year to award our park a 'gold star' - one of only seven awarded in the North West of England for Small Parks.
The Flower Walk looks like it has flower beds on both sides of the path compared with the single flower bed along the wall as it is currently.
There is still a bench located in the same spot as the one in the picture although the one in the picture has now been replaced by MCC, and is a modern more robust metal one.
The large tree on the right hand side, next to the bench, still existed when we started our volunteer work in 2014 but by this stage it was completely dead, all its branches had been removed, and it was left as a rather ugly 'totem pole like' large trunk about 25 feet high. Thankfully, this rather unattractive feature had to be removed in about 2022 when the large wall behind it had to be rebuilt. The tree was in such a poor state of decay when it was being removed that simply the friction of using a chain saw on it - set it on fire. There were clouds of smoke billowing right across the park - but luckily there were some volunteers in the park at the time and we were able to use our hose pipe to eventually put out the burning embers. Exciting times!!
One very interesting aspect of this picture is that the bend in the path starts near the bench whereas today much of this expanse of path has been grassed over. However whenever there is a dry spell. the grass in this area dies off very quickly. We have investigated this and found that the path still exists just below the grassed surface.
Can you notice the telegraph pole in the flower bed. Clearly this does not exist today. I wonder if it was power or telephony for Broome House?
Can you notice the building within the grounds of Broome House? This had been replaced by the 1990's when the new houses in Heritage Gardens were built.
From the feedback I am receiving, lots of people are finding these historical pictures really fascinating and I would like to thank Louise for all the hard work she is putting into researching them and to Manchester Libraries who are the source of many of our images. Thank you Louise.
GOOD NEWS - PROGRESS ON FODP's APPLICATION FOR DIDSBURY PARK TO BE CLASSIFIED AS AN ASSET OF COMMUNITY VALUE
After a brief hold up, I am delighted to report that the Councillors of Didsbury East Ward have now written to tell me that they have now agreed to support our application to MCC to recognise Didsbury Park as an Asset of Community Value. I have also received correspondence from the City Solicitor to inform us that a decision will be made by 16th July 2025 and we will receive copies of any comments received on our application. Fingers crossed!
MORE GOOD NEWS - FODP CHARITY MEMBERSHIP REACHES RECORD TOTAL
I am delighted to report that thanks to some excellent work from Sandra and Sonia, (our membership officers), and a new advertising banner designed by Louise, the number of paid up registered members of our charity has now reached over 200 members from our community for 2025. This is a record total which continues to grow day by day. It is really uplifting to know that so many of our community actively support the work which we do in the park. Our 200th paid up member, Gillian, joined us on Saturday when we opened up the wild flower meadow at the Didsbury Festival. A huge thank you!
EVEN MORE GOOD NEWS - THE MILESTONE OF 50,000 HOURS OF VOLUNTEERING WORK BY FODP IS EXPECTED TO BE REACHED LATER THIS MONTH
At the end of June the number of volunteering hours we have undertaken in the park since we started volunteering in 2014 had reached the total of 49,540 hours. At the current rate we are therefore on track to break through the amazing milestone of 50,000 hours by the end of this month! An amazing achievement by our volunteering community of Didsbury!
TODAY
Throughout most of last week the weather forecast for today was for heavy rain. As it turned out, we were extremely lucky, and our 40 volunteers who worked in the park today enjoyed a warm dry morning!
Our volunteers today included 8 volunteers from Kellanova (probably better known as Kelloggs) and a new volunteer Augustine. We also welcomed back Rebecca and Carl T for the second time. Everybody was made very welcome.
TODAY - TRAM SPOTTING
You may recall that last week, one of our members, Val, took the initiative and had a replacement 'TRAM SPOTTING' sign made for the Poppy Path. So this week the heavy gang of Murray, Richard and Carl N sprang into action and fixed it next to the special tram spotting viewing windows on the Poppy Path.
Picture 2 shows the team enjoying the opportunity to do some "tram spotting" themselves on the Poppy Path bridge. Well done guys!
TODAY - THE NEW FLOWER BED RECEIVES FINAL PREPARATION BEFORE THE SUMMER PLANTS ARRIVE NEXT WEEK
We had a number of teams working upon the new flower bed today in preparation for the delivery of the summer plants next week. Initially Carl T and Augustine carefully supervised by Sonia, cleared the excess soil from the bed before we took delivery of a ton of compost.
Picture 3 shows 3 of our Kellanova volunteers in the process of spreading about 1/3 of the compost from the bag onto this bed before moving the remainder on the pallet truck to the flower beds near the Wilmslow Road gate where it was carefully added to the flower beds near the gate. This was a great piece of work - thank you!
TODAY - THE HIMALAYAN BIRCHES RECEIVE A MAKEOVER
Pictures 4 and 5 show the two teams who did an amazing job on the Wild Flower Meadow today. Initially the focus was upon weeding and tidying up all the tree bases of the beautiful Himalayan Birches. Once this was completed the focus shifted to the weeding of the hedges and under the picnic benches. The improvement was fantastic.
Picture 4 shows Carl M, Myra, Christine and Allan alongside the cleaned up base containing woodchip. Picture 5 shows Caroline and 3 of the Kellanova volunteers posing next to the superb job they have done on the tree. All this work made a huge improvement to the look of the wild flower meadow - thank you all!
TODAY - WEEDING AND PLANTING
First thing this morning Clarisse and Thanh started to tackle some local areas which needed weeding along the Flower Walk whilst Julie and Jude planted some new alchemilla mollis and astromelias in some of the weed free areas.
Picture 6 shows Julie and Jude posing in front of this attractive flower bed. Thank you all - great work.
Meanwhile Denise and Louise were doing an excellent piece of maintenance on the rose beds near the volunteer's shelter. See picture 7.
These rose beds have been stunning this year. Well done Denise and Louise - thank you!
TODAY - SEASONAL PRUNING
Under guidance from our horticultural experts a series of shrubs were identified today as being seasonally ready for pruning. As a result a large team of Shasvat, Chris, Joyce, Tristan, Rebecca and Sophia were very busy pruning shrubs from the Gillbrook Road entrance down past the rockery.
Picture 8 shows Joyce, Sophia and Rebecca working behind the DNC and picture 9 shows Tristan in amongst the plants in the flower bed leading to the Wilmslow Road gate. Thank you all. This was an excellent start today.
TODAY - TIDYING THE FLOWER BED EDGES
Following their work on the Poppy Path the heavy gang moved to mowing duties and tree damage clearance work. Carl N in his deputising for Gary role, gave the cricket pitch a good cut and then they shared duties as they tidied up the flower bed opposite the rockery.
PIcture 10 shows Murray mowing and Carl trimming around the edges of this large flower bed. Richard meanwhile was supplying broken branches to the natural hedge building team. Thank you once again guys - this area looked a lot better after your work.
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Gill N checked out and updated all the dog bag dispensers located at all 5 entrances to the park. Thank you Gill
The team of Sandra, Lorna, Wendy and Anne worked hard to continue to build the natural fencing n the woodland area - Great work - thank you
Alan once again made a big impact on the health of the trees by undertaking a pruning of epicormic growth throughout the park. Thank you Alan.
NEXT WEEK - SUNDAY - MERRY OLD LAND OF OZ
We are delighted to welcome the Stars Academy children's theatre once again to perform in the Bird Garden next Sunday. They are performing the Merry Old Land of Oz in a number of performances throughout the day. They would like some help to set up and take down the equipment. We have a number of volunteers already to help but a few more would make it easier. We are starting to set up just after 8am and plan to take down at 3:45pm. This is always a great production for the primary school age group. Please just let me know if you are free to help?
NEXT WEEK - MONDAY - GIRL GUIDES LITTER PICK
The girl guides are planning to do a litter pick in the park next Monday evening starting at 7:45pm. They will supervise the activity so it should not require any significant additional help from us. The main impact is likely to be that my update report will be delayed until Tuesday morning, next week - so no need to wait up!
Thank you once again for your amazing support.