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We were back in the park last Saturday for our November volunteer morning. Plenty of work to be done with wood chipping the paths for winter, collecting litter and planting bulbs for spring. A big thank you to all those who attended.

Pushing wheel barrows filled with wood chipping to the path next to the seasonal pond.

Shovelling the wood chipping in the pouring rain. We didn’t let a spot of bad weather get our spirits down.

Planting daffodil and tulip bulbs at the edge of the park. Can’t wait to see these grow and bloom in the spring.

The local council contractor thought it was a good idea to drive around the park on a wet day. He got himself stuck in the mud and tractor had to pull him out to safety.

One of our volunteers preparing the ground for the bulbs.

Hot drinks for our busy volunteers.

And some chit chat.

It was great to be back in Manor Park hosting our February Volunteer Morning. We had a list of jobs which needed doing to help get the park ready for spring: litter-picking, spreading wood-chip on the front-path, bramble-bashing, wild-garlic bulb planting and woodland maintenance.

We set up as usual on the grassy area by the railway bridge. It was a little colder than we’d anticipated, but setting up the gazebo and refreshment area soon got the team warmed up. In fact we were set up in record time – well before kick-off – so we got stuck into a few of the tasks we’d planned for the day.

It wasn’t long before our wonderful local volunteers started arriving. Each was assigned with their very own task.

Our usual weekday team arrived and quickly got on removing the bramble located directly behind the junior football pitches, where balls tend to end up, and can be painful to locate.

One of our local councillors, Mike Massimi, joined us. He focussed his attention on the wooded area by the houses on Malden Road. We wanted to thin out the trees to help improve the health of this copse. We’ll keep focussing attention to this space over the next year.

Three of our volunteers planted wild-garlic bulbs behind the pond. We hope this will catch and in time create a stunning carpet of white flowers, and a delicate garlic scent. One for local foragers.

James, our photographer, raised the crown on some of the trees at the front. We’re keen to maintain the sight-lines below the crown level, to provide a view into the park from the road. Enticing more people into the Manor Park.

As always we love our 11am tea break. A good chance to catch-up with our neighbours. (And have a gossip).

By the end of the day, much bramble had been bashed, woodland improved, garlic planted, litter collected and the path covered in woodchip. We hope you like.

A big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers, and to Glendale who arrived in the morning with our tools and the trailer for the green-waste and litter.

If you’d like to join a volunteer event, keep an eye out on our social media or visit this website. Everyone is welcome and it’s great fun.

Drop us a line at team@ourmanorpark.org.uk

2022 saw Manor Park make its biggest step forward for many years, with the launch of the new kids playground. This would not have happened as it did without the involvement of you the community.

A lot else happened during 2022. We ran 3 volunteer work mornings, a nature based festival – Naturefest, a Park PowWow community session, the Christmas on Plough Green event and various guided walks. We planted hundreds of bulbs and lots of new trees. Our weekday volunteers were out most weeks litter-picking, cleaning off graffiti, and generally tending to the green spaces. Behind the scenes the friends team were involved across a range of projects and issues, working with our friends at the council and at the green-spaces contractor.

The NEW Playground

The new Manor Park playground finally opened to the public in August. It is arguably now one of the best in the borough. It has been busy with children and parents from the moment it launched, becoming an immediate destination.

Playgrounds of this standard don’t just happen. To get to where it is today has involved the community, the Friends of Manor Park, the council, local councillors, local businesses, and even the Mayor of London.

We were delighted to transfer to the council a contribution of £20,000, which was raised by the community and the group to the overall playground budget.

A big thank you to Fiona Sowell, from the friends team, who so passionately managed this project from our side.

Naturefest

We now run an annual nature-based festival – Naturefest. This years’ well attended event ran in early September. We had a birds of prey show, a reptile house in the hall, live music, nature talks, hot/cold food and a selection of themed stalls.

Volunteer mornings

We try to run 3-4 weekend volunteer mornings each year. These normally happen on a Saturday, with 30+ local volunteers getting together to make various improvements to the park’s greenspaces. This years’ work included adding woodchip to the paths, planting bulbs, trees and hedging, woodland maintenance and litter-picking.

Weekday volunteers

Almost every week without fail a group of senior volunteers turn out to litter-pick, deal with graffiti, top-up the birdfeeders, and work on the green spaces, including cutting back overgrowth on paths. Their collective week-in week-out work makes a huge difference to the park.

Trees for the playground

Some of the feedback we received about the new playground was that it lacked shade. We asked the tree team at the council if we could get a scheme of semi-mature trees planted to help create the much needed shaded and interest. They duly obliged. In November their contractor planted a selection of 14 trees, which the community will benefit from for years to come.

Christmas on Plough Green

Each year now the friends group with the help of local residents and businesses organises the Community Christmas Tree and the lights switch-on. This year the Mayor Of Kingston gave a speech and switched the lights on for us. This is always a lovely community event.

Outreach

We organised 3 local walks – a batwalk at the Hogsmill, a tour of Tolworth Court Farm and a Swift walk. These are part of our work to reach-out of the park. A big thank you to Elliot Newton, our local Bio-diversity Officer for supporting us with these.

Other improvements

We liaised with the sports officer at the council, resulting in an outside table tennis table being installed between the tennis courts and the playground. We were delighted that the park also benefited from the installation of an all-year cricket pitch. We’ve now got a junior club who use the park on Saturdays during the summer.

The next 12 months

On the agenda for next year is more work improving our green spaces, getting a mobile café to set up on weekends, working with the council and the Shiraz Mirza Trust to ensure that the hall maximises its amenity value for our neighbourhood, working with the council to get new paths installed, and to ensure that the new adult gym is properly consulted on within the community. We will be running Naturefest ’23 and Christmas on Plough Green. We’re also looking to make the Friends of Manor Park into a charity.

A park for our community 

The community came together in 2016 to create the Friends of Manor Park group. We work on behalf of the local community to protect and improve the park. Parks have the potential to offer communities with significant amenity value – health, social, play, sport, education, access to green space, and environmental benefits.

The arrival of our new playground has helped us really understand how the park can act as a community hub. It is now the public space where most people from our community gather for one reason or another. One day in the summer we counted over 200 people in the playground. Manor Park can help the Motspur Park and Old Malden community live in a neighbourhood where more of our local amenity is truly in walking distance and of a high standard.

If you share our vision for our park as a community space and want to help us increase the level of amenity, its quality and its relevance for the local community then do get in touch or join us at one of our events.

A big thank you to all our wonderful volunteers and the local businesses who support our work.

Wishing you a happy New Year from the Friends of Manor Park Team – Fiona, Nausheen, Matt, Bryn and Simeon.

On Saturday the 26th of November we held our annual Christmas tree switch-on at Plough Green and what a magical event. The event was organised by Fiona Sowell and Nausheen Arnold so a big thank you to them. The Vibrant Ukuleles provided the Christmas music and song and Kingston Mayor Yogan Yoganathan was there to switch-on the Christmas tree.

Once again, thanks to our financial supporters – Ivygate Estate Agents, Miller and Carter, Joanne Chandler, Jazz Barbers, Plough Pharmacy, Worcester Park Tiles, Bruce Elliot and last but not least, the Old Malden Ward Councillors.

The Vibrant Ukuleles

Christmas music and cheer.

The raffle and goodies tent

Mayor Yogan Yoganathan giving his speech.

The countdown

The switch-on

Decorating the Christmas tree.

After 4 years of hard work the community came together on Sunday 14th August for the grand opening of the new Manor Park playground.

Many local people turned up to support this momentous occasion. Simeon Linstead, Chair of Friends of Manor Park, introduced our amazing project leader, Fiona Sowell. She’s led this work from day one, and her persistence has certainly paid off, with what is arguably one of the best playgrounds in the borough.

Fiona gave a short speech, during which she told the story of how we got to where we are today, she also thanked the community for their amazing support, our fundraising team, local councillors (particularly former cllr Simon Edwards), Kinsgton Council, Mayor of London, our landscape architects – Outerspace, the playground supplier – Kompan, and the local businesses who supported the event – Hooky Street, Tesco, Co-op, and Plough Bakery.

Fiona then handed over to the former Mayor, Cllr Thay Thayalan, who gave a short speech. He made reference to the fantastic community effort that’s gone into this playground, how Covid had made it a much more challenging project, and the council’s committment to parks through its Community Playgrounds Programme.  He then cut the ribbon which was tied across the monkey bars AND our playground was formerly open.

Read more about the story of the playground

The Friends of Manor Park Team ran a couple of gazebos. In one we listened to ideas from the community, answered questions, and showed off the architects drawings for the park masterplan.

Kompan, the company that installed the playground had a gazebo where families could pick up tokens to get free ice creams. We also had another stall where Harriet Linstead applied glitter makeup and a balloon lady who modelled funny shaped balloons for the children. The ever popular Hooky Street Cafe had a stall for coffee, cold drinks and snacks.

We received lots of positive feedback from local parents, who love the new larger space, the fantastic new equipment and the smart picnic seating. People were saying how they now have a playground they can invite their friends to.

Find out what’s next for the playground and the park – read more

View more photos from the opening event – gallery

On Wednesday 6^th of July Simeon Linsted organised a talk and walk on the subject of swifts in the UK.  We met outside the Shiraz Mirza Hall in Manor Park and there was given a talk about swifts by Louise Cole and Elliot Newton. We learned that swifts spend 90% of their lives in flight, that they migrate from southern Africa and they return to the same nests in the UK every year to breed. 

We then went on a walk around the streets of New Malden, observing swifts in the evening sky. A peregrine falcon and a wood pecker was also spotted. This demonstrates the diversity of bird life in our local area. 

The walk ended on Amberwood Rise outside the house of Louise’s son. We watched in astonishment at the swarm of swifts flying overhead.  Here Louise showed us her son’s swift boxes, on the front of his house. 

A big thank you to Louise, Elliot and Simeon for such an educational talk and walk.