Preparing for RHS Judging and Reflecting on Didsbury Park’s Past
THE HISTORY OF DIDSBURY PARK - MAIN ENTRANCE 1914
Picture 1 captures a scene at the main Didsbury Park entrance on Wilmslow Road in 1914. Britain declared war on Germany on 4th August 1914.
We do not know if this picture was taken before or after war began. However war had been very much predicted for many years before it eventually started, so the likely hood is that it would have been very much in the thoughts of the men in this picture at this time.
It is a disturbing feeling that, shortly after this picture was taken, the world would be plunged into the most horrific conflict and our nation would lose a generation of young men and our country would never be the same again.
This picture has some really interesting contents, such as:
Wilmslow Road is made up totally of cobble stones.
The mode of transport in the picture is horse and cart. Look at the size of the cartwheels!
As a result of the many horses on the roads, the roads used to contain lots of horse droppings - there is a suspicious looking pile on the side of the road nearest the park. This would be very handy today for fertilising the park!
The two men at the park entrance are in typical clothing of the day - starched collars and flat caps.
There are two very stylish lamp posts, lit by gas, on the left hand pavement. One next to the park entrance and one at the Broome House entrance.
Thank you once again to Louise for researching this latest picture and to Manchester Libraries for allowing us to use these archives
TODAY
After last week's relaxing river cruise on the River Rhone in Provence, it was great to be back with our volunteer team in Didsbury Park again this morning.
We had a good turnout of 43 volunteers today which included a team of 9 volunteers from Siemens, Peter from Amey, Nicky from Thermal Road Repairs, and new local volunteer called Fay. We were also very pleased to see Laurent joining us too after all his exams are now completed. Everybody was made very welcome.
We also had a special guest speaker at our coffee break today. We were delighted to welcome Marie Earle from Greater Manchester's Ringway walking trail. Marie gave us a very interesting talk about the 20 stages of the varied and beautiful Greater Manchester walking trail which is 200 miles long and is designed to be accessed by public transport. It was particularly interesting because on one of the stages the trail comes through Didsbury Park!!
Leaflets were handed out at the meeting but if you would like some further information please do not hesitate to let me know.
There was a very successful Car Show held in Didsbury Park yesterday but this morning there was a lot of bagged up litter which had been left behind and which needed collecting. Thanks to some great support from Brian from MCC, who made two special trips to the park, the bagged up rubbish was removed by mid morning.
We then did some additional litter picking right across the park. This was led by Chris, Joyce and Andrew and Winnie who were able to return the park to its usual standard of cleanliness by the end of the morning . Thank you to everyone who helped with this clear up operation.
TODAY - PREPARATIONS FOR THE RHS VISIT NEXT MONDAY: FLOWER BEDS
Our main work priority today was upon the final preparations for the RHS visit to the park next week to judge us for the Britain in Bloom competition. These activities included:
Weeding and tidying up the prestigious Flower Walk. Picture 2 shows Jude, Julie and Ilma standing in front of some beautiful lilies in the Flower Walk border. Lucy also helped in this area. Picture 3 shows Emma, Peter and Lesley doing some much needed bindweed removal further along the Flower Walk. Christine and Fay also helped in this area too. Thank you all this was a super piece of work.
Picture 4 shows Sonia (just passing), with Denise and Louise who had been doing some excellent maintenance work on the rose beds. Thank you all.
Picture 5 shows Lorna and Gill B in the rockery where they were helped by Wendy to weed and tidy up this whole area.
Picture 6 shows Augustine and Sonia posing for a picture near the flower beds located around Buddy and Lucy. These are looking super - thank you
A huge thank you to everyone who made such a fabulous improvement to all our flower beds today.
TODAY - PREPARATIONS FOR THE RHS VISIT NEXT MONDAY: NEW CERTIFICATE DISPLAY BOARD
We have been working for a number of weeks on creating a new notice board which we can use to display the many certificates which our volunteers have received for the work we have done in the park.
Picture 7 shows the newly designed display board receiving its final coat of paint from Nicky and Esme. Picture 8 shows the completed display board installed on the shelter wall by Adrian and Carl N.
The display board contains the 'RHS In Your Neighbourhood' top award certificate, the Gold Award Certificate for small parks, the Most Favourite Park in Manchester Certificate and the certificate signed by King Charles 3rd for the KIng's Award for Voluntary Service - equivalent to an MBE for volunteer groups. With this new display board we have been able, for the first time, to put these awards on display for all our volunteers to see and enjoy. Thank you to everybody who helped design, construct and install this new display board.
TODAY - PREPARATIONS FOR THE RHS VISIT NEXT MONDAY: EDGING & STRIMMING
Our volunteers from Siemens made a phenomenal impact upon the tidiness of the path edges around the park today. Picture 9 shows Dan flanked by 2 colleagues from Siemens who tided up the whole of the edges of the path from the Sandhurst Road gate to the roundabout. This was a huge improvement. Other volunteers from Siemens did a similar impressive job on the paths around the Flower Walk and Rockery area and around the Volunteers Shelter. Thank you all.
Picture 10 shows the team of Murray, Murray's guest volunteer and Allan working on fixing the strimmer before Allan could use it to tidy up around the cafe garden borders. Great job guys. Thank you
TODAY - ELSEWHERE IN THE PARK
Richard, Greg and Laurent continued to work in the woodland area. Thank you.
Gary was in charge of mowing a number of important grassed areas including the newly sown area and around the flower beds today as well as cutting and re-marking the cricket square. Great work Gary - Thank you.
This morning Alan investigated and reported the graffiti which had appeared on the Poppy Path during the last week. Thank you Alan Fingers crossed this will now be soon removed.
Chris removed some of the epicormic growth from some of the trees. Thank you Chris.
Finally a huge thank you to Deborah, who donated a large very solid chest of drawers to our volunteers shelter today. This new unit has enabled us to make a huge improvement to the way we store some of our tools. Thank you also to Nicky who then helped to tidy up the tools in the store room.
Thank you once again for your fantastic support.