east midlands in bloompage 4 summer beauty and the beast! oadby, wigston and south wigston town...

Oadby & Wigston in Bloom

East Midlands in Bloom Portfolio 2015

Portfolio Created by Pride of the

Borough Members

Generously supported by

Pride of the Borough

Committee Members of Pride of the Borough

Simon Lucas Chairman

Frank Winters Treasurer

Graham Lamb Secretary, membership/loyalty card

Sheila Lamb Minutes’ Secretary

Anne Bailey London Road Pocket Park

Lesley Parr Oadby Civic Society

Cyril Davison Canon Close Residents’ Group

Jacky Bell Resident and volunteer

Keith Turner Friends of Brocks Hill Country Park

Teresa Walton Aylestone Lane Allotment Society

David Watkin Friends of Botanic Garden

Jake Croft Volunteer

Irene Sibley Wickham Road Residents

Graham Neville Audio-visual presentation

Bill Davice Portfolio production

Val Davice Rosemead Park Action Group

Ann Wood Floral Display Competition Organiser

Anne Larder Two Steeples’ Oasis

Maurice & Anne Worthington Hill Way Residents’ Group

Andrea Chapman Portland Walk Green Space

Alan Wood Resident and Volunteer

May Hilton Wigston & Knighton Floral Society

Sue Lobb Friends of Peace Memorial Park

Brian Kew Clean & Green Environment Manager OWBC

Carolyn Holmes Country Parks and Environment Manager, OWBC

Pat & Dave Tebbutt Friends of Brocks Hill Country Park/Tree Wardens

Sue Doughty Aylestone Lane Community Allotment

David Carter Councillor OWBC / Chair Greening the Borough

Sarah Dickinson Volunteer

Colin Robertson Rotary Club of Oadby

Tony Parr Oadby Launde Rotary Club

Paul Fox Leicester Racecourse

NOTE: There are many more heroes working on our various projects!


Our portfolio is designed by amateurs drawing together material to tell our story through the lenses of many different cameras. This year we present a largely pictorial sample of our Borough through the

seasons. As the saying goes; “a picture paints a thousand words”. We hope you enjoy reading it.

This portfolio will inform you of many volunteer projects carried out in the Borough for which we have attempted to count the time freely given.

We estimate that in the last 12 months in excess of

9,900 volunteer hours have been given carrying out environmental work.

NOTE: All the photographs (except heritage sites) in this portfolio were taken within the past 2 years, the majority the past 12 months.

Pride of the Borough is a voluntary group brought together in 2003 to: improve our local environment work with the Council to organise the Borough’s entry into East Midlands in Bloom encourage community activities that will increase pride in our Borough

Still going strong in 2015, this is one of our convivial, monthly committee meetings at the Brocks Hill Centre, Oadby. We are a team of 29 individuals each bringing a local interest to create the whole. We are made up of friends of parks and green spaces, civic societies, community action groups, neighbourhood groups, local businesses, councillors and council officers, all committed to making our Borough a good place to live.

But times are changing and we must adapt. Local government funding and staffing are under severe pressure and we, as a volunteer group, are not getting any younger! Two of our priorities have been to secure our funding and to raise our profile, attracting more volunteers. We have achieved the first with our contribution to the life of our community being recognised by a Council grant that will enable us to set our own budget priorities from 2015. In addition, through our energetic secretary, our Membership & Loyalty Card Scheme, with over 400 members, has both raised our profile and supported local businesses. It has also raised a significant sum to be reinvested in our projects. Our second priority is longer term and we have made a start with local bulb planting volunteers and others inspired by our membership scheme. We are now much more visible, and we are learning as we go. Some additional achievements have been: The Council’s Greening the Borough initiative continues to make positive changes to our

environment to which we have contributed. Autumn bulb planting across the Borough, involving many new, local resident volunteers,

yielded a welcome splash of early colour as a very wet winter came to an end. New beds have been added to tired green areas and extensive mulching with tree bark is

making beds easier to maintain and conserving rainwater. Challenges yes, however we can be proud to have embraced these and can look forward to a positive future. Simon Lucas Chairman Pride of the Borough

Summer

Beauty and the Beast! Oadby, Wigston and South Wigston town Centres have benefited from long-term regeneration projects. With much of the work done in summer 2014, our challenge was to keep

our town centres open and attractive while workman dismantled and relaid the infrastructure. Sometimes it felt like Oadby & Wigston in Dust, rather than in Bloom!

But with some local ‘give and take ‘ we got there!

Oadby Centre Regeneration

Summer

This year we feature our Floral Displays Competition entries, encouraging residents and businesses to feature their gardens, containers and displays

Summer

Schools and Aylestone Community Allotments

Brocks Hill Primary opens New Outdoor classroom

St John Fisher RC Vol. Academy EMIB - Silver Award

Aylestone Lane Allotments Association Open Day

Autumn

Best Front Garden: Pat Beasley of South Wigston Best Container: Roger Wymer of Oadby Most Unusual Container: Wendy Robison of Oadby Best Large Commercial Display: Leicester Racecourse Best Small Retail Display: Penney’s Florists of Wigston Best School Garden: St John Fisher Academy In the regional ‘Specials’ category, the judges gave particular recognition to: Pat Beasley; Best Front garden: Silver Gilt Award Leicester Racecourse; Best Retail/Commercial: Silver Gilt Award

Celebrating another successful

year together. Our evening brings everyone

together: volunteers; sponsors; Council staff &

Councillors, to share stories and to reflect on the past

year + Future planning

Congratulations to the winners: Oadby & Wigston Small City

Gold Award

Pride of the Borough Awards’ & Celebration Evening

Autumn

New Bulb Planting Project : Volunteer co-ordinators batched and distributed 8,500 crocus and tête-à-tête daffodils to volunteer planters around the Borough. .

In addition to our regular spaces, we targeted grass verges: Oadby Free Evangelical Church Rotary Club of Oadby Rotary Club of Oadby Launde Trinity Methodist Scouts St Peters and St Paul’s Brownies Wigston Civic Society Brabazon Road Residents Oadby Launde Residents

Publicity and Promotion

Our new Loyalty Card received the Judges’ Special Award in 2014 we have now 29 participating businesses and over 400 members. Each participating business has an identifying logo and

carries a branded container with application forms. Cards can be purchased at all of the main Council outlets, including the library and Brocks Hill Centre.

To support our Card launch,

Sports & Leisure Management (SLM) Ltd, (Everyone Active)

now operating the Parklands Leisure Centre, provided three prizes, each worth £130, in a

Prize Draw for all Loyalty Cardholders

Publicity Articles in:

We have actively promoted the Card at all Pride of the Borough events.

1914 Centenary

Oadby and Wigston have their central memorials to those who died in the Great War, inaugurated

like thousands of others across the nation, in November 1921.

Oadby & Wigston Remember the Great War

that began on 4th August 1914 and lasted until 11th November 1918

South Wigston Wigston Magna Memorial Wall

Oadby

“The Flanders’ Poppy” There are other poignant, personal,

memories around the Borough, like the New Testament on permanent display in

Wigston United Reformed Church. Les Forryan, a keen gardener and worshipper at the church took this Bible with him to war.

Only after his death in 1970 did his family discover the dry, pressed poppy that he had

plucked from a Flanders’ field and placed between its pages 55 years earlier.

Mr Forryan was our Chairman’s great uncle!

“Armed Man” A hundred years on, Guthlaxton, Bushloe and Abington

schools collectively came together for a special Remembrance Day Service at Bushloe High School.

Following their incredible Armed Man performance at The Royal Albert Hall, the three schools were

delighted to be able to perform again on Remembrance Day 2014.

The “River of Life” at Bushloe High School. Each poppy carried the name and family name of one of the fallen of Wigston.

1914 Centenary

For every name on the memorials there was a personal story. Local Wickham Road Green, volunteer and military historian, Nigel Atter, has documented some of those poignant Oadby stories in a Council funded Centenary project. More than 300 Oadby men enlisted of whom at least 70 died.

We include one family as a tribute to them all. Mrs Susan Sutherland, a widow, living on London Road, Oadby, lost both of her sons: Matthias (pictured below), on 25 October 1914; and his brother, Harry, on 27 May 1917. Both are remembered, with honour, on the plaque in Oadby Baptist Church.

“Just a little scrap of paper in a yellow envelope And the whole world is a ruin, even hope. “

From ‘The Unutterable Beauty’ by Rev. Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy M.C. British Army Chaplain (known as “Woodbine Willie”)

These poppies graced Wickham Road Green

At our November committee meeting, Elsie Brewin presented David Atterbury (British Legion Chairman) with her cheque for

£100 - the proceeds from the sale of one hundred poppies she knitted to make this Remembrance year special.

First shown during our Floral Displays’ Competition at Two Steeples the beautiful arrangement attracted a great deal of admiration

August National Citizen volunteers at Brocks Hill

250 residents & 10 businesses canvassed over bulb planting - 27 have responded positively

Crocuses and tête à tête planned

September EMiB Awards Evening 17 September

Awards & Celebrations Evening 22 Sept. Rosemead Park clear-up, pruning and bulb planting

Ellis Park clearance of bindweed Tidy Britain Group Wombles theme!

Greening the Borough projects begun at: Clifton Bridge; Pochins Bridge; Fludes Lane

Rotary Plant Sale 17 September Brocks Hill Centre Creative Nature Adult

Sessions Begin

December Greening the Borough article in Letterbox Brocks Hill Dog Walkers’ Shelter complete

Bulb planting completed across Borough Loyalty Card Prize Draw 20 December

Barn finished at Brocks Hill Centre

November Wickham Rd. clear-up and bulb planting

Hill Way replanting with grasses & perennials Two Steeples - 400 polyanthus, pansies & bellis

Wigston & Knighton Floral Society demonstration Brocks Hill Centre Craft Fair – Loyalty Card stall

Pride of the Borough Month by Month

July EMiB & Floral Displays Judging

Brocks Hill Primary School opens outdoor classroom

Brocks Hill Centre & Peace Memorial Park received Green Flag Awards

October Portland Walk clear-up and planting 500 bulbs

Brocks Hill Food Fair – Loyalty Card stall Master Gardners’ Project Elizabeth House

vegetable garden mentoring scheme Aylestone Lane Allotments begin plans to create

an edible forest garden

January Membership/Loyalty Card Promotion stickers

distributed Portland Walk tree debris clean-up

Rosemead Park clean-up Loyalty Card has 215 members

Brocks Hill trees from nursery allocated

February Refurbishment completed to area around Age UK

Wigston, Paddock St. Pride of the Borough new funding arrangements

approved by OWC Wigston and Knighton Floral Club gaining members

EMiB Bloom Seminar Melton Mowbray

March Greening the Borough – Verges management

changing to Blaby DC Brocks Hill Spring planting by volunteers

(Ranger’s post extended 6 months) Hill Way maintenance day - Roses thriving

Loyalty Card now has 283 members

April Rosemead Park– tidying beds & litter (free of

dog mess this time!) Brocks Hill achieves Natural England Country

Parks Accreditation Peace Memorial Park Coffee Morning

Brocks Hill Super Sunflowers supported by Pride of the Borough volunteers

EMiB Floral Display arrangements finalised

May Rotary Club Plant Sale Oadby 16 May Loyalty Card now has 371 members

Peace Memorial Park—Green Flag Award judging Ellis park almost free of bindweed

June 7 June— Brocks Hill Environmental Garden Party with Pride of the Borough volunteers in support

Mulching beds at Rosemead Park Preparations for EMiB judging

Volunteers from Charnwood Foods—Bedding plants in Blaby Road Park

Leicestershire has been excited by the plans for burying the remains of Richard III - we share the enthusiasm but cannot claim any close, historical, Oadby & Wigston links to the events of 1485!

While many of our spaces lie fallow through the winter there is still ground tidying, clearance, hedging and ditching to be done

Volunteers renovate the fencing around the Den

Building Area

Winter

Rotary volunteers tackle “Chicken Alley”

Brocks Hill traditional hedging and ditching

Course

The first signs of life as bulbs emerge on Wickham Road.

Volunteers and staff from Charnwood Foods building the New Dog Walkers’ Shelter ....

Winter

…. accompanied by the new Dog Walkers’ Policy !

One of the two benches made in the Barn and installed by the

mid-week conservation team.

The New Conservation Barn provides much-needed working space for staff

and volunteers.

The new outdoor amphitheatre, closed off to allow the grass to root, in preparation for the

inaugural, summer Garden Party.

Brocks Hill Centre - Infra-structure work by volunteers

Brocks Hill Centre.

Winners of:

Spring

After a long, wet winter, our bulbs bring the first colours of spring to the verges and open spaces.

Brocks Hill Centre volunteers plant the new raised beds and clear the

ground for spring planting.

University of Leicester Botanical Garden. Spring crocuses show and beds

are prepared by staff for summer planting.

Bulbs in flower on a few of our plant-ing locations Wickham Rd Green,

Portland Way, Launde School, Rosemead Park, Brabazon Road, Lon-

don Rd.

Spring

Wickham Road volunteers

collect 60 sacks of grass cuttings left by Council mowers, while

Hill Way stalwarts remove 40 sacks of waste and

spread mountains of mulch provided by Council re-cycling!

Two Steeples beds manicured to perfection, to show off 400 new plants 2015

“Super Sunflowers!” Easter at Brocks Hill Centre as Pride of the Borough volunteers help young families plant

sunflowers to take home and nurture (and chat about the Loyalty Card, too!)

Bags of Work!

Spring

Five intrepid Oadby Rotarians braved the early-May winds to collect 49 sacks of litter in the wooded area between ASDA and the A6. (The be-

ginning of our new Campaign to reduce litter)

Master Gardeners’ mentoring scheme raised vegetable beds constructed by

Elizabeth House residents

Fludes Lane litter collection then a serious tidy-up

Volunteer painters from St Wistan’s Church, supported by Pride of the Borough, spruce up

this Wigston church’s entrance. Wigston South Station closed 59 years ago on 2 May 1966, but not forgotten.

Blaby Road Park on 2 May 2015. South Wigston’s regeneration plan celebrates imaginatively its

important historical railway links - not only transport but an evocative memory for us steam

train-spotters on this line in the 1940/50s!

Summer

Elizabeth House, Wigston -The first fruits of the Master Gardeners’

Community Garden mentoring Project.

All ages at Aylestone Lane Community Allotments ...

Trending on social media………!

The newest member of the Rosemead Park Team gets the easy job! Last minute

mulching.

Summer Planting at Two Steeples 2014

Future Projects Future Projects

Extension of Bulb Planting Project

The popularity of our 2014 community bulb planting means that we will be extending the

programme into 2015/6.

Edible Forest Garden

Volunteer plot at Aylestone Lane Allotment: Creating an evolving project called The Edible Forest Garden - based around permaculture

principles it mimics the way plants grow naturally.

Their plan is to grow miniature fruit trees, including heritage apples.

Most of the bushes will produce edible fruit.

Campaign to reduce litter

Feedback from our working parties makes frequent mention of litter collection as a prelude to planting

and ground maintenance.

The worst affected areas are those frequented by young people and our transient population of university students living in nearby rented

accommodation. We are working on proposals to involve a wide range of stakeholders, taking advice

from expert sources. Our plan is to target the beginning of the new school

and university terms to raise awareness and encourage greater responsibility in litter disposal.

On facebook by 2016

This year we have used members’ personal facebook accounts to share Pride of the Borough news. By creating our own face-book page, we hope to attract a broader range of volunteers

and share our events even more widely.

We are grateful for support from local businesses

During 2015/16 our Website: www.prideoftheborough.org

will benefit from the services of our new webmaster: Richard Griffiths

Oadby

Wigston

Ken Bailey Garden Centre at Wistow Brocks Hill Cafe Black Dog Pub Cheikho's Restaurant Desi Lounge Restaurant everyone ACTIVE Henry Smith & Hamylton Opticians Ltd Leicester Chauffeurs Maromme Cafe Newton Fallowell Estate Agents Mobility shop Midlands Quality DIY & Hardware The Grange Farm Vintage Inns Tippetts Florist Ltd Wok In Wok Out Noodle Bar

Branded-Clothing Co. Ltd. Cuisine of India Restaurant Fins, Furs & Feathers – Pet Care Store Floors by Design UK Ltd Henry Smith & Hamylton Opticians Ltd Hunters Estate Agents Lords Electrical Mr Beanbags Cafe Navigation Inn Patson News Penney's Florist The Appliance and Fireplace Studio Wigston DIY Ramada Leicester Stage Restaurant

Join us!

We hope you have enjoyed our portfolio which shows you just some of the many and varied activities taking place in our Borough throughout the year. There is a lot of hard

work, and it sometimes rains, but we keep coming back for more so we must enjoy it!

To find out more about Pride of the Borough and how you can get involved please contact us or one of our partner organisations.


Brocks Hill Visitor Centre Washbrook Lane

Oadby Leicester LE2 5JJ

Mobile: 07874228491

Visit our web site: www.prideoftheborough.org

Follow us on Twitter (and soon on facebook)

Look out for our news in Oadby & Wigston Borough Council’s newsletter — Letterbox

Just two of the friendly teams of resident volunteers working together to improve Oadby & Wigston’s open spaces. If you have an open

space that you would like to make an impact on, get in touch with us…!

Volunteering can mean just turning up on a couple of mornings a year to help with the gardening. But we also value enormously

people who will share their skills and experience at our monthly committee.

… and don’t forget to get your membership and loyalty card! Only £5!

east midlands in bloompage 4 summer beauty and the beast! oadby, wigston and south wigston town...

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