The Committee of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens presented their Annual Report for the financial year 2022/23 at the Annual General Meeting in July 2023.
The Annual Report continues the style introduced with the Spring 2023 newsletter.
The 8-page document aims to provide an easy-to-read, illustrated snap-shot of the work of the Friends.
A special Coronation Picnic Party & dog show newsletter has been published by the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens to record this fun event as part of a historic weekend.
What it cannot show you is the hours of planning by the volunteers that went into making it a success before and after the event. The party is not over until the clearing-up is done.
There are lots of photos – you may see yourself or your dog – but we cannot include everyone.
It was a great surprise that King’s representative for Greater London Deputy Lieutenant Simon Ovens attended to deliver a message from King Charles III, and accompanied the then Mayor of Harrow Councillor Janet Mote.
As we’re sure you’ll already know, we are seeking to bring a Junior Parkrun to Pinner Village Gardens. This is a weekly run for children aged between four to fourteen across a 2-kilometre route set out in the park. With thanks to those generous donations, the startup fund of £4,000 was raised to enable this to take place.
To reflect the imminent status of the start of the parkrun, we have added a specific page to our menu which can be seen here. This will be updated with the current status of the project, and right now we’re encouraging those who have not already done so, to sign up to take part at:
https://www.parkrun.org.uk/register/
Initially, we will run a small scale pilot event to test our equipment, course suitability and most importantly………. our preparation! If successful, we plan to go live the following week.
We’ll publicise the start date on social media and personal communications. We’ll also keep the Junior Parkrun details in our event calendar which can be found here.
We are currently creating a list of fantastic volunteers who are happy to help out on the occasional Sunday. Our parkrun needs 14 volunteers each week to enable it to operate. If you feel you could spare an hour of your time, please do contact either:
Glyn Watkins – glynwatkins11@gmail.com
Emma Rackham – emma.rackham@parkrun.com
We hope to see you at the Junior Parkruns once they begin!
Earlier today, volunteers from the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens welcomed David Simmons, the Member of Parliament (MP) for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner, to the park where he joined us for one of our working parties. Cllr Simmons has been the Conservative MP for the constituency since 2019.
During his visit, he was able to see the work recently completed on the new stone raised bed at the Rayners Lane entrance, which was designed to mirror the bed installed during the 1930s at the Whittington Way entrance and bring a sense of symmetry to the park.
He subsequently praised the beauty of the park on Twitter, where he posted a selfie with the mural near the Rayners Lane entrance. The Friends funded this mural during the pandemic, with members voting on the chosen design. We would like to thank David for his kind words about the park, and for taking the time to visit us earlier.
For further details on how to join our working parties, please see our volunteers page here.
Recent visitors to the park may have seen works started near the entrance leading onto Rayners Lane/Marsh Road. This is part of the improvements to the grassy “roundabout” in the middle of the path. The area was previously used as the location for the park sign, which the Friends have since had moved to outside the park.
This location will feature a raised bed within a low stone wall. This is with the intention of mirroring the 1930’s design already in place at the entrance leading from Whittington Way. It will feature new planting and flowers, and a series of raised sculptural elements reminiscent of wild clematis seed heads. These are metal and sprayed with a coating that will encourage them to rust so as to bring additional colour to the area.
As always, a lot of thanks to all those involved in this project. Including both those who have generated the funds, and those volunteers who are completing the work on behalf of the Friends. This is part of an overall plan to bring Pinner Village Gardens in line with the Green Flag Award. Further information can be seen on that Award here.
Other larger-scale park improvements have also been proposed at the Hereford Gardens entrance, which can be seen here.
Visitors to Pinner Village Gardens will be familiar with the work conducted by the Friends and their volunteers to make the entrances to the park as welcoming as possible. This has seen overhauls of the planting and layouts at the Whittington Way, Rayners Lane/Marsh Road and the Compton Rise entrances. However, there is an as-yet untouched entrance, which leads from Hereford Gardens into the park next to the tennis courts adjacent to the playground.
An overhaul of the Hereford Gardens entrance has been proposed, and we would like to hear your feedback. So please take a look at the designs below, and let us know by responding via this form.
Concept: Plants with fragrance for people, and plants suited to bees and other pollinators to benefit all.
Aims:
The areas under consideration today to some 140 –190 square metres and their dimensions are:
Additional planting under the trees immediately to the right in the park after entering, and around the adjacent bench, will be considered at a later stage.
These plans will see the relocation of two existing Amelanchier trees and the addition of the following:
Shrubs:
Ferns:
Groundcover (multiples of all):
Hardy Perennials & Bienuals:
Bulbs (autumn planting for spring flowering):
It was so pleasing to see everyone this morning for our inaugural Children’s Fun Run to support the foundation of the Pinner Junior Parkrun. We had a huge number of attendees, who were all just as excited as we were to see everyone out and enjoying the park.
For those who took part, please download your participation certificate from here: https://www.pinnervillagegardens.org.uk/fun-run-certificate/
We were even lucky with the weather, as there were only a few spots of rain as the runners set off around the two-kilometre course. A huge thank you to everyone who attended, as well as the ongoing support of running club Metros and the Pinner Rotary Club who lent us the equipment to put on today’s event.
It was also great to hear feedback from parents who were keen for us to start up the Junior Parkrun so that we can do this every Sunday. We are thankful for their donations at the event, and a few suggested that we put out a donation link. So if you’d like to donate to the efforts to bring a Parkrun to Pinner Village Gardens, then you can do so via PayPal with this button:
With thanks to the Facebook Group “Harrow – Old Views“, we recently discovered a photograph of the rose circle near the Whittington Way entrance which was taken in 1976. This is the only photograph we have of the old Elm Trees that used to stand in Pinner Village Gardens, as they were removed the following year because of Dutch Elm Disease.
Another thing to note is the absence of Compton Copse, which was subsequently added to the western edge of the ridge and furrow field. With modern technology, you can directly compare the photograph below, with that of the park at the moment. Simply use the scroller on the image from left to right to take a look at the differences in the park across more than four decades.
