There have been bird nesting boxes in the Park for a long time but many of these had become dilapidated. Using grants for materials from Chorley North West Ward Councillors’ community funds and Astley Village Parish Council, 30 boxes were built by pupils at St Mary’s High School, Leyland. The installation was carried out by Chorley Council Rangers.

The bird boxes were made to a design approved by the RSPB. Most significantly they incorporate a metal plate around the access hole. This is so the hole can’t be made any larger by squirrels or woodpeckers. This means the boxes remain ideally suited to small birds such as wrens, blue tits and great tits. The boxes were installed in the autumn of 2024 on suitable trees in the Park’s woodlands.

Twenty students from across all age groups made the boxes in their after-school club, supervised by Technology teacher Mrs Sales. Each of the boxes are numbered according to which student made them. The children involved subsequently came to visit the Park in the spring of 2025 accompanied by their teachers and were shown the bird boxes installed in Great Wood by Friends’ volunteers. It had been hoped that installing the boxes in the previous autumn would give time for the local bird life to become accustomed to their presence and roost or nest in them. So it proved, as many of the boxes seen by the students were clearly in use on the day of their visit, with birds viewed regularly flitting in and out.