A Happy New Year to all users of the Park from the Friends of Allestree Park...
Allestree Park in Derby, England, is the largest and most scenic
of the City’s parks. Although lying on the northern boundary of the city of Derby, it merges
with the attractive hilly countryside of the south Peak District
fringe. Much of the Park is a golf course, but there are a multitude of
different wildlife habitats ranging from woodland to the large lake.
PICTURE OF THE MONTH: Looking west across Allestree Park from Big Wood
17th February 2010 - Bill Grange
The Park was laid out in late 18th century, when the present Hall w
as
built. The Hall is now largely empty - being the subject of several
abandoned schemes in recent years, one of them being a nature museum.
The Park is largely used for quiet recreation by Derby’s people, with a
variety of interesting walks, including a nature trail. It is easy to
get away from it all in this splendid park and it is difficult to
realise when walking in its woodlands and meadows that it lies within
the boundary of an industrial city.
There is a wealth of wildlife in the Park, including several county
rarities. This variety is partly the result of a varied underlying
geology.
The Friends of Allestree Park group was founded in 2005 and is
open to anyone who is interested in Allestree Park, its conservation,
educational and recreational value.
As well as liaising with Derby City Council, which owns and runs the
Park, the Friends have organised a programme of events, including
talks, activity days for young people, nature walks and conservation
work parties. The latter have included tackling the alien and invasive Himalayan
balsam and rhododendron, cleaning out debris from part of the Lake and working with Derbyshire Conservation Volunteers in restoring the main footpath through Big Wood and installing an impressive flight of steps.
We have instigated the clearing of a large amount of invasive sycamore from part
of Big Wood, carried out by members of Broomfield College, which will be followed by replanting with native shrubs and trees.
A more unusual project was painting a tree mural on a previously graffiti-blighted pumping house on the Lake shore, to make it blend with its surroundings.
We also mounted a successful campaign to save the animal pens near the Hall from closure and prevent the scrapping of the permanent on-site ranger service.
Our Former Chairman, Alex Kilpatrick
We are sure that all who knew him will be greatly saddened to hear that Alex Kilpatrick, the first Chairman of the Friends of Allestree Park, passed away on 12th January, 2009, being diagnosed with a brain tumour the previous year. Alex was really the founder of the Friends and has been the driving force behind many of our projects, being an inspiration to us all with his enthusiasm and warm sense of humour. Many more tributes to Alex can be seen by clicking on the arrow:
LATEST:
The Friends of Allestree Park - Long-term Plan.
we have produced a plan of what we want to achieve in the five years from 2010 to 2015. Click on the item 'FOAP Long-term Plan' in the menu list at top left of this page. Please read it and see what you think of it.
'Tree O’Clock'
We
joined WildDerby and partners at Big Wood, Allestree Park - on Saturday
5th December, 2009 - to plant trees as part of the BBC
Breathing Places attempt to beat Guinness World Record for the most
trees planted in 1 hour.
Click on 'News and Comments' (top left menu)
for an illustrated report.
The proceedings of the Friends of Allestree Park's Annual General Meeting on 14th October.
Veteran tree Walk on 8th November, '08
There are also illustrated accounts of both the Big Wood steps project, and pump-house mural project, completed in August 2009.
