Lark in the Park

Saturday 22nd June, 12 noon - 4pm, Mayow Park

Lark in the Park is the community festival brought to you by Perry Vale Assembly, designed to bring local people and community groups together for a day of fun in the park. This year, the theme will be celebrating world cultures.  We hope to have a music and performance stage, and we are also looking forward to welcoming the police #together team with their police horses and dogs.  Plus all the usual attractions including free face painting and storytelling for under-fives, free tennis tasters, Dr. Bike and all our favourite local community groups and charities.

Thanks as usual to Friends of Mayow Park for helping to plan and publicise the festival – find out more about the Friends on their Facebook page: @FriendsofMayowPark.

Table Top Sale at Mayow Park - Sunday 19th May

 

Friends of Mayow Park — Reflecting on 25 Years

By Alona Sheridan, Chair, Friends of Mayow Park

2018 is the 140th Anniversary of Mayow Park and the 25th anniversary of Friends of Mayow Park. In 1993 Lewisham Council’s parks department was far-sighted to see the potential value of having park user groups; thanks to their initiative, the Mayow Park Users’ Group (MPUG) and others were set up.

The first MPUG meeting was held on 20th April 1993 at Forest Hill Baths. Lewisham Council appointed Gordon de Langley as the liaison officer for the group. It was a time when parks all over the country were in decline, and Lewisham Council encouraged local people to form park users’ groups as a positive effort to try to reverse the decline into the longer-term future.

Around 1998, along with many other park user groups around the country, the name of the group was changed to Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP).

Back in the early days of MPUG the park still had an aviary, a full-time park keeper and gardeners who maintained its well-kept flower beds. The aviary was removed in the late 1990s, and FOMP are seeking photos of it for their archives. Budget cuts over the years have resulted in our current part-time park keeper being shared with another park.

Even in the early days of the Friends, the main topics of concern were about litter, dog fouling and the state of the paths. After years of patient waiting, funds became available and, in June 2016, major works were carried out to resurface the worst paths.

Since 1999, FOMP have celebrated Tree Dressing (an ancient pagan custom) on the first weekend of December. Originally, an ancient oak in Mayow Park with a long horizontal branch was decorated annually, but in recent years the community orchard has been the preferred venue.

The first trees in the community orchard were planted in March 2012 by a large team of volunteers and more were planted in 2016, bringing the total to 18 trees. FOMP now hold an annual Apple Day in mid-October to celebrate the orchard — giving park users an opportunity to taste different varieties of apples and to get to know all the fruit trees, and to enjoy story-telling and other family activities.

The Friends also organise tree walks, bat walks, and volunteer workdays in the orchard and at our herb beds.

Mayow Park: Summer 2015 Update

By Alona Sheridan, Chair, Friends of Mayow Park. Alona updated us on activities at Mayow Park — a much-loved, 7-hectare public park located between Forest Hill and Sydenham.

Park receives Green Flag Award!

Fourteen of Lewisham’s parks were each awarded a Green Flag in July this year and Mayow Park was one of them. This was the 19th year of the awards, which highlight the value of parks and green spaces for their local communities. We must commend Glendale Lewisham for working to the standards demanded for achieving these awards.

In addition to general maintenance such as grass cutting and repair to facilities, Glendale has responsibility for maintaining the cricket square to a suitable standard for weekly matches during the cricket season. Cricket in Mayow Park looks set to stay and the most active home team, Caribbean Mix, is doing very well. The fixtures’ list is posted on the notice boards around the park.

For those who have not visited the park in a while, an outdoor ‘gym and trim’ trail was installed in January 2015. The equipment appeals to all ages and not only to fitness enthusiasts. An extensive range of fitness facilities now exists if we include the children’s playground and older children’s area, and tennis courts.

Having such a busy park requires a quality café, and Mayow Park has just that. Brown and Green opened in August 2014 and has proved to be an invaluable addition to the park.

Community group activities

Friends of Mayow Park’s (FOMP’s) gardening volunteers look after plant beds at the Triangle (near the café), which consist of a fruit garden and herb garden. These beds replace the original roses and bedding plants that were costly to maintain. Now, park users can pick leaves of herbs or taste the raspberries, admire the tall cardoon plants that bumble bees love, meander along the two woodchip paths or relax on the grass by the magnificent dawn redwood  tree. The orchard of eleven fruit trees, near the tennis courts, is now in its fourth summer and, with Lewisham Council’s approval, will receive additional fruit trees. Lewisham’s Nature’s Gym conservation volunteers visit three or four times a year, working alongside FOMP, to help maintain these areas (photo, below). Their blog recently featured our very own Mayow Park — see natureconservationlewisham.co.uk/category/natures-gym.

Mayow Park is also the home of Grow Mayow, an independent community garden, situated behind the café. Their activities and events have a great focus on gardening and the environment. A measure of their popularity was evident when £1,890 funding for beekeeping activities was awarded at the Perry Vale Assembly last November (2014). Congratulations to Grow Mayow for this success!

Special events

The bowling green of the former bowls club — which closed a couple of years ago — can be hired for special events, including parties and open-air film screenings. As part of Sydenham Arts’ Summer Festival, the film ‘The Wizard of Oz’ was screened on a Sunday evening in early July. Other summer events included Lewisham Council’s dog micro-chipping event, which was well attended by dog-owners, and Perry Vale Assembly’s successful ‘Lark in the Park’ community event.  

For more info, visit friendsofmayowpark.blogspot.co.uk

Friends of Mayow Park meeting

Are you a regular in Mayow Park? Would you like to find out more about activities and developments there? If so, the Friends of Mayow Park would like to see you at their General Meeting at 7pm on Tuesday, 9 July.

The meeting will be held at the Dacres Wood Nature Reserve Field Centre, which is a single storey building located up a driveway off Dacres Road, between Homefield House & Catling Close. The Field Centre is accessed through gates at the end of the driveway and turn left into building.

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They are particularly keen to invite regular park users including dog walkers, sports groups, young people aged 16+, parents of young children and others to join them. For more information email: friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

New Community Orchard

The community orchard in Mayow Park was planted on Saturday 28th January 2012, after months of preparation that saw Friends of Mayow Park (FOMP) working with London Orchard Project (LOP) and Lewisham Council.

Numerous local adults and children helped, learning from LOP how to dig a square hole, mulch and stake the trees. Eleven trees were planted: ten trees were sponsored by local people and one was a gift. The Society sponsored the Brandy Pear tree, which is a medium sharp perry pear.

Six people volunteered to be orchard carers. They will receive basic training on care for the trees and will water them during the growing season for the first two years. A fruiting hedgerow was also planted. We look forward to autumn fruit harvesting and other celebrations annually. If you would like to be an orchard carer or would like to know more about the orchard. Contact FOMP on friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Mayow Park Orchard

The Friends of Mayow Park are planning a new community orchard on the southern side of the park, very near the tennis courts. The proposal is for five apple varieties, three pears (including two varieties of perry pear) and two varieties of plum bordered by a hedgerow of mirabelles, gooseberries, raspberries, dog rose, redcurrants and blackcurrants.

They are looking for individuals or community groups to sponsor or care for the fruit trees. If you are interested in either possibility, please email them at friendsofmayowpark@ymail.com

Several of their members recently attended the Orchard Leaders Training day run by London Orchard Project where training included fruit tree planting and maintenance, community engagement and starting to write an orchard management plan in preparation for the new orchard.

London Orchard project will lead the community planting day on Saturday, 28 January from noon to 3pm, bringing trees, stakes, tree guards and tools. All that is needed is a few volunteers! Go along and get involved.

Dacres Wood Nature Reserve and Field Centre Open Afternoon

Organised by Forest Hill Society and Friends Of Mayow Park
27TH MARCH 2011 from 1pm to 4pm

This small nature reserve has woodland and a meadow. A special feature of the site is the wetland area which is a remnant of the old Croydon Canal, bypassed when the railway was built.
Forest Hill Society and the Friends of Mayow Park are pleased to have arranged an open afternoon for the public, with history talks at the field centre, guided walks and activities for all the family.

Refreshments will be available

How to find the Dacres Wood Field Studies Centre and Nature Reserve:
Entry will be via the Field Centre which is near the junction of Dacres Road with Silverdale, between Homefield House and Catling Close. An unmarked driveway leads directly to the Field Centre from Dacres Road. Parking is available on Dacres Road and other nearby roads.

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