Author: essyouuee

Engineering and construction firm J. Murphy & Sons Limited recently provided 80 trees and shrubs plus the personnel to help Friends of Astley Park volunteers plant them in various locations across the town’s premier park. The Murphy team, who are currently doing rail infrastructure projects in the Chorley area, gave their time as part of the company’s ‘Giving Back Days’ scheme, which gives employees paid time off to support their local communities across the country. On this occasion, alongside the shrubs and volunteered time, the Murphy team also donated £500 worth of groceries to the Living Waters food bank and provided the opportunity for Buckshaw and St Laurence’s primary school pupils to do litter picking in the Park.

The tree and shrub planting was overseen by Chorley Council staff and the Friends. The day was topped off by the Mayor, Cllr Julia Berry, providing the finishing touches to the task.

Murphy’s have also made a commitment to carry out major works next Spring to bring the River Chor Reed Bed back to its original function by removing large amounts of silt so as to reinstate the water flow around both sides. 

Friends Chair, Stephen Rhodes (pictured), has been interviewed by Lancashire Environmental Fund (LEF) staff about the Astley Trail for a video being made for the LEFs Annual Event to be held later this year.

The Fund is a partnership of SUEZ Recycling and Recovery UK Ltd, Lancashire County Council, The Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside and Community Futures which local distributes monies from the national Landfill Committees Fund. Such funding, along with monies from Chorley Council helped py the contractor’s costs and associated expenses incurred in 2020 in creating the Astley trail, the 2 mile long waymarked path around the key features of the Park.

Now further works are imminent to improve the Trail for wheelchair and pushchair users as well as benefitting people with impaired mobility. Again, it is a project to be LEF and Chorley Council funded, with also a contribution from Astley Village Parish Council, involving two new lengths of path that will bypass stretches which have steps and upgrading the path from Elmwood into the Park.

Recently Friends’ volunteers have rediscovered an old wall in the Park at Damhead Wood, just upstream of the pond by the Hall. The line of the wall has been cleared and some of the loose stones put back.

The works to provide additional step-free paths to the Astley Park Trail are now underway and will be completed by the end of November.

Thanks to Chorley Council staff the “Lost” fountain, which was previously restored by Friends’ volunteers, now proudly boasts a knee rail fence.