Author: essyouuee

What gold is in Astley Park at the end of the Rainbow? Well at this time of year there is gold appearing all over the Park. Here is a clue to what’s behind it all…

For more images of the Park in autumn take a look at the Gallery

Litter picking in the Park recently focused on cleaning debris from the River Chor and although many stretches were surprisingly clear of discarded items Friends volunteers did unearth two shopping trolleys! One is pictured below. See also our ‘Riverfly’ article explaining how we intend to sample the quality of the river water environment. That initial training session revealed the river in quite good condition, but we need to be vigilant to spot any pollution incidents. 

The first training session for Friends’ volunteers to learn how to sample ‘riverfly’ invertebrates has recently taken place. It is a way of gauging how healthy the River Chor through the Park is. The greater the variety and number of a specified range of invertebrates the better the quality of the water environment. It is part of a wider initiative called ‘Turning the Tide’ aimed at improving the River Douglas, its tributaries and the water they discharge into the sea. Many thanks go to Sam Phillips and Sara Clowes from Groundwork who did the training. After further tutoring and assessment early next year the Friends hope to do regular river sampling and submit the results for a catchment wide database. For more information click here https://forthriverstrust.org/lessons/who-is-riverfly/

When we are busy working in the Park, we often get questions from people passing by interested in what we are doing. Whilst we are always happy to pause and explain, we now have a convenient card to hand out. This directs people to our website information and how they can join us if they wish. Stocks of the card are being issued to our members so that opportunities to spread the word about the Friends are not missed. The image below shows both sides of the card.

At a recent Saturday morning working party Friends’ volunteers planted well over 200 bulbs in the vicinity of the Sensory Garden. Many thanks to Chorley Council for supplying us with the following:

• 25    Camassia cusickii
• 50    Crocus “Whitewell Purple”
• 50    Crocus “Cream Beauty”
• 50    Narcissus “Mount Hood”
• 50    Narcissus “Carlton”

For the last few Saturday mornings Friends’ volunteers have been removing ground vegetation that has once again grown over Snowdrop bulbs along a length of the Trail opposite the bowling greens. In the spring extra posts were installed to more clearly mark the Snowdrop positions and now the summer vegetation growth has been cut back to the line of posts to leave cleared ground for the bulbs to flower.

Chorley Council staff have now installed five benches in the Great Wood part of the Park, along the route of the Astley Trail. These robustly constructed oak benches commemorate 50 years of the Chorley Ramblers group and have been funded by the Terry Lewis Legacy in honour of a local walker.

Our annual quiz is happening on Wednesday 4^th October at St Mary’s Parish Centre, off Devonshire Road, Chorley PR7 2BY. It starts at 7.30pm prompt and is open to non-members as well as signed-up Friends, you will be invited to form or join a team. Tickets are £7.50 including a hot pot supper. You need to pre-book but you can pay on the night by contacting Keith Woan on 01257 278759 or via email –   k.woan192@btinternet.com

Once again, the Astley Walled Gardeners are organising an event to celebrate the apple harvest. The details are in the image below. The Friends of Astley Park will have a stall which will feature acorn planting and apple shape colouring children’s activities. Our exclusive member artist designed greeting cards will be available to purchase and you can find out more about what we do to help keep Astley Park looking good. Hope to see you there!

Despite a poor weather forecast in advance of the Chorley Flower Show, when it came to it there was only one short sharp shower, and this not until the Sunday. However, it was a bit soggy underfoot and that affected how we set up the activities in our stall.

This year we had a new large ‘four seasons’ banner designed by our member Sue Jackson, featuring wild flowers, nuts, berries, and fungi she had photographed in the Park. We also displayed our new bunting made by Sue and fellow member Sue Giles. It all made for an eye catching effect. 

We gave away, in exchange for donations, about 120 plants grown by our members. Numerous young families enjoyed the children’s colouring and leaf rubbing activities. The raffled painting was particularly popular, it was won by a Mrs. Cooper from Euxton.