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Friends’ volunteers have been splitting and transplanting snowdrops along the Trail. Moving them from places where they are abundant to fill in gaps that have occurred elsewhere.

Friends’ volunteers have been doing further clearing of the duckweed covered pond behind the Lost Fountain using a variety of implements, including a grappling hook. The work is part of on-going efforts to improve the pond and its immediate vicinity.

Thanks partly to recent leaf and bramble clearance work done by Friends’ volunteers, the flowers on the Snowdrop Trail are now on full show. The circular waymarked Trail can easily be walked starting from opposite the front of Astley Hall and either by going down the Dam Wall Steps or along the woodland edged lawn opposite the bowling greens. The Trail continues from the Lost Fountain eastwards along the southern bank of the River Chor to the bottom of the Steps.

Following the improvements to create new step-free paths along the route of the Astley Trail, completed towards the end of 2022, several additional waymarking posts have now been installed by Friends’ volunteers.

Our first working party activity in the Park in 2023 has been clearing leaves and brambles from the Snowdrop Trail so that the flowers can put on a great display in the coming months.

Happy New Year everyone and Best Wishes for 2023.

If you are reading this, you are probably interested in Astley Park and the care of this delightful space. Perhaps you have wondered who helps to maintain it? Or maybe even thought about joining the small, friendly bunch who volunteer in the Park. Now is a great time to join us and help getting things ready for the new growth in Spring.

If you are considering volunteering and want to benefit your local community, please use the Contact Form and we will get in touch.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all. Thanks to everyone who has worked with us in 2022 and to all who have generously donated and supported us.

The new path creation and surfacing works have been completed by the contractor commissioned by the Friends’. Meaning they are available for Park users to walk along. All that remains are some additional waymarking posts that will be installed by our volunteers in the New Year.

The new path around Dog Trap Wood

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.