Park News
December 2023
Enter the Friends’ Community Lottery – win a cash prize!
Christmas Bonus
As the festive season approaches, there’s an exciting opportunity to win a whopping £3,000 Christmas cash bonus in the draw on Saturday 23rd December! ENTER HERE
Chance to win £25,000 Jackpot every week!
Have a better chance of winning the lottery when you play the local Horsham District Community Lottery, and you will be supporting the Friends!
By selecting The Friends as your chosen ‘good cause’, 50p from each £1 ticket goes to support much-needed funds for the Friends of Horsham Park; and 10p goes to other local causes.
Why not enter today? It’s a win for the Friends and could be a bigger win for you!
Fun Quiz Night raises valuable funds
The Friends’ annual quiz, on 25 Nov, was once again a fun evening while also raising an impressive sum of nearly £500 to fund our work in the park. We will be spending some of it on spring planting, so watch out for colourful blooms popping up then!
This year, around 70 quizzers filled Trinity Church Hall to rack their brains on questions on topics such as women’s sport, music and nature, among others. Thanks to quizmaster David Sanderson and to Mike Harling for the live ‘name that artist’ round.
At the end of the evening, three teams shared the top spot, with scores too close to call! Spot prizes went to the winners of two separate challenges – composing a tongue-twister and modelling a new award for the park from plasticine.
Ros Shiel, one of the quizzers, said: “As always, the Quiz was a lot of fun. The questions were generally just the right level, though our team struggled on the environmentalist picture round! There was a nice relaxed atmosphere of friendly competition, and it was good to catch up with other Friends in a sociable setting.”
The Quiz will return in 2024, so if you like planning ahead, mark Saturday 23 November in your diaries!
Lots of planting going on!
The Wednesday morning volunteers had a challenging task this week – planting hundreds of plants and bulbs. At least the weather was better than for the hedge planting last month! The plants were sourced by Hannah Neale of HDC’s Parks and Countryside team, and we spent £528.31 on them. Therefore, a massive thank you to everyone who supports us through grants, the quiz or the lottery – it has enabled us to enhance the following beds:
In Park House Sensory Garden
In the shady bed between Park House and the lawn: 2 x Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’, 6 x Aster frikartii ‘Monch’, 6 x Geranium clarkei ‘Kashmir White’ 12 x Iris ‘Caeser’s Brother’. This will be lovely for people coming down the steps from the registry office.
In the Winter Interest bed: 10 X Carex oshimensis ‘Everest, 1 x Choisya ‘Aztec Pearl’, 1 x Lonicera x purpusii ‘Winter Beauty’, 3 x Sarcococca hookeriana var. humilis 7 x Helleborus ‘Pretty Ellen Pink’. The following bulbs were added: 100 Crocus – large flowering mixed, 50 Narcissus ‘Pink Charm’ and 50 Narcissus ‘Replete’.
Carex oshimensis adding to the Winter Interest in the bed supported by the Sussex Gardens Trust grant.
In the Water-Wise, climate change bed
Here we added: 300 Crocus mixed and 100 Tulipa bakeri ‘Lilac Wonder’.
For the central beds
There wasn’t time to plant these this week, but the following tulips will be added next week: 50 x Tulipa ‘Ollioules’, 50 x Tulipa ‘Saigon’ and 50 x Tulipa ‘White Triumphator’.
In the bee bed
3 x Geranium ‘Rozanne’ and 3 x Rudbeckia fulgida ‘Goldsturm’ to extend the season for pollinators.
For the Tennis Court bed
This was getting overrun by Japanese anemone so some of these have been removed making space for plants to supplement the current scheme: 3 x Peonia ‘Sarah Bernhardt’, 2 x Perovskia ‘Blue Spire’ and 2 x Stipa gigantea. We have also added 50 of each of the following tulips for a spring display:
Tulipa ‘Honeymoon’, Tulipa ‘Mariette’, Tulipa ‘Ollioules’ and Tulipa ‘Saigon’.
At North Street entrance
we planted two Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna ‘Purple Stem’ which will grow quite dense to hide the electricity cabinet. We hope that people passing by in the winter will enjoy the sweet-smelling flowers.
At the Pond
In addition to all this, the Parks and Countryside team gave us over 100 plants for the pond inside the fence on the East side. These continue the natural theme of the outside bed planted last winter – along the bank and in the corner by the gate. alongside the new turf. As we didn’t pay for these, we don’t have the plant list yet. Alejandra has created a short Instagram video of the pond planting here.
Volunteers’ social
After all the hard work, our volunteers celebrated by going out together for a Christmas social. 22 of us sat down for a pizza at Monte Forte and we had a lovely evening (even if the dividing the bill between us was a little complicated!). It’s difficult capturing everyone in the photo now that the group has grown so large – and not everyone could make it! With such a great team, we can achieve so much and have lots of fun at the same time.
A big round of applause for everything they have done this year to enhance the park and make it a more welcoming and enjoyable place to visit. Thank you all.
National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces: Xmas/ New Year Appeal
Below is an appeal from this national group that supports Friends groups such as ours with advice and by working at a national level.
Do you love your local parks and green spaces, and would like to see them better maintained and protected?
You can help make a real difference today! https://www.avivacommunityfund.co.uk/p/better-friends
There are 7,000 local greenspace Friends Groups and hundreds more being formed each year. We are passionate volunteers who organise events and activities, promote our sites on social media, and want to ensure our communities get the very best out of these vital local spaces.
The National Federation of Parks and Green Spaces is the unfunded and volunteer-run umbrella organisation of our inspiring grassroots movement.
OUR WORK IS ABSOLUTELY VITAL TO THE FUTURE OF THE UK’S GREEN SPACES:
– We support and link up the greenspace Friends Groups across the UK
– We promote and share success stories and good practice
– We ensure the voices of the grassroots are amplified and listened to at all levels, including by Government
– We call for proper funding and protection for all public greenspace
We are a registered charity with a great track record already over the last 10 years. But we need your help to continue to do this, and to do it better!
Please donate today, and forward to all your contacts. For every £10 donated Aviva will give us an extra £20. Help us reach our initial £3,000 target by New Year’s Eve!
Events in the Park
- Every Weds & Fri. Walk and Talk in Horsham Park. Meet at The Human Nature Garden Weds 10 -11am and Friday 12-12.40pm
- Every Sat parkrun 9.00am
Volunteering Opportunities
- Ribbon Border Volunteer group – every 2nd Sunday
The RBV group meets every second Sunday in the month at 10am by the entrance to the North Street carpark, everyone welcome.
For more information please contact David at [email protected] - Gardening and Conservation group – every Wednesday
The Wednesday Morning Group” meets at 9.30am at the Jubilee car park next to the entrance sign to the Human Nature Garden. Their main tasks are planting and pruning and generally making improvements to the park’s appearance for all to enjoy. All tools provided.
Please contact“ Sally at [email protected] - Helping at events – as required
We need Friends to help out at events we hold in the Park. It may be just for a couple of hours occasionally, or as a one off. It can be great fun. Any help is much appreciated.
Please contact Sally at [email protected]
Click here to join the Friends
Wishing all our Friends a very merry Christmas and a happy & healthy new year!
