09 May 2016
A book published by the Fabian Society with support from Groundwork, Keep Britain Tidy, the RSPB and the Woodland Trust addresses the challenge of maintaining the UK's parks and other green spaces in an age of Austerity.
Ed Wallis, the author of Places to Be: Green Spaces for Active Citizenship, sees green spaces as providing a "crucial community ballast". He sees an "opportunity to manage our green space in such way that empowers citizens, bolsters people’s sense of place and.......
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16 April 2016
The Friends of Arnos Park are running a photographic competition. The best picture illustrating "The Joys of Arnos Park" will win an Amazon voucher worth £25.
Entries should be sent by email to
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12 April 2016
Many of you will have heard about the plans of the Friends of Broomfield Park to create a wildlife pond and a community growing space in the park. Well, it is about to happen.
Do you fancy helping to create the new wildlife pond and community growing space in Broomfield Park?
The pond and growing space will be located between the tennis courts and the orchard.
The location of the growing space and wildlife pond - and what they might look like
1. Marking out, stripping the turf and.......
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and forum comments
29 March 2016
Storm Katie arrived in London on Sunday night/Monday morning and did a fair amount of damage. On the Friends of Broomfield Park Facebook page Tomas Adomaitis has posted photographs of the effect on the recently planted lime trees in Broomfield Park. Obviously, it doesn't compare to a pub having its roof ripped off (elsewhere in London), but it's a pity. Hopefully, the Council will be able to fix the ten or so trees that were.......
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23 March 2016
Easter Sunday is the last Sunday in March and therefore the last chance to see this month's Spirals of Life sculptures in Broomfield Conservatory before they give way to the April exhibits.
The March exhibits are sculptures of lilies and ferns created by Cathy Taylor and June Dawes.
Cathy writes:
"Ferns first caught my eye in the beautiful La Mortella Gardens in Ischia, Italy, where the fronds of giant tree ferns interlaced against the sky. Tree ferns are a very old form of life, familiar.......
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22 March 2016
The fourth annual photographic competition held by the Friends of Broomfield Park has been announced. Visitors to the Park are invited to take photographs while there and submit them in one of two categories: Adults and Under 16s.
The competition runs until 4th August, after which a shortlist of entries will be exhibited in Broomfield Conservatory. Visitors to the Conservatory will be able to cast votes for their favourite photographs.
Last year's competition was won by.......
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21 March 2016
Work has started to create a new park on an area of open land just south of the North Circular Road - and local people have been invited to suggest a name.
The new park - currently known as Russell Road Green Space - is partly situated on top of the underground section of the New River which passes beneath the Bowes Road section of the North Circular - slightly to the east of the railway bridge. The land belongs to Thames Water, who are leasing it to Enfield Council. The cost of.......
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15 March 2016
The project to transform an unexciting area of playing fields into a haven for wildlife and attractive open space while simultaneously helping to mitigate flooding reached another milestone on 9th March, when the Firs Farm Wetlands and Cycle Path were formally opened.
See here at the ribbon cutting ceremony are (from left to right) Cllr Bambos Charalambous (Associate Cabinet Member Enfield Southgate), Ian Russell (Senior Engineer from Enfield Council), Cllr Daniel Anderson (Enfield.......
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02 March 2016
The first month of this year's Artist-in-Residence scheme in Broomfield Conservatory was brought to a close with a very popular drop-in workshop, giving visitors an opportunity to learn how to create ceramic leaves.
Cathy Taylor's five-month residency goes by the overall title "Spirals of Life", each month having a different theme, but all within the overall concept of "biological sculptures".
Cathy's report on last Sunday's workshop:
"The ceramics leaf-making workshop in the Conservatory in.......
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02 March 2016
The Friends of Broomfield Park have written to Enfield councillors to express serious concerns about the impact of budget cuts on the management and upkeep of parks in the borough and on Broomfield Park in particular - "one of the jewels in the borough's crown".
The letter from the Friends, sent ahead of last week's full meeting of the Council, listed some of the impacts which the proposed cuts would have: reductions in grass cutting in parks, use of volunteers to pick up litter after.......
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28 February 2016
A charity which helps promote good practice among organisations involved in managing and supporting London's parks and other green spaces is calling on everyone who values them to lobby candidates for the upcoming Mayoral and Greater London Assembly elections.
The London Parks and Green Spaces Forum has written to Friends of Parks groups throughout the capital suggesting points which should be made to candidates. The Forum is particularly concerned about cuts in expenditure on parks by.......
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18 February 2016
Two of the jewels in the crown of Broomfield Park, the Greenery café and the Conservatory, were broken in to on the night of 17/18 February. Both of these are run on a non-profit making basis by teams of volunteers.
The Greenery suffered the most damage. A tree trunk seat was thrown through one window and another window was broken, probably as an easier exit route. The tree trunk was thrown through with enough force to break the metal security bars on the inside of the window. The trunk.......
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and forum comments
11 February 2016
The voluntary group Black Rainbow Events have published their programme of guided walks for 2016. All walks are either within Trent Park or start or finish there.
Trent Park History and MysterySunday 20th March 201610:00am till 12:30pmDistance: no more than 3 miles
Trent Park Link Walk (Trent Park to Arnos Park)Sunday 17th April 201610:00am till 2:00pmDistance: no more than 6 miles
The Beauty of Nature RevealedSunday 22nd May 201610:00am till 12:30pmDistance: no more than 3 miles
The.......
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09 February 2016
Exciting news from Broomfield Conservatory: the Thumbergia Mysorensis is flowering!
If you'd like to see this exotic vine in bloom, head for Broomfield Park on Wednesday or Sunday afternoon, between 2pm and 4pm, when the Conservatory is opened to visitors by the Friends of Broomfield Park.
As its name suggests, the Thumbergia Mysorensis is native to India, though it is also cultivated in southern Spain. Alternative names include Mysore Trumpetvine, Indian Clock Vine, Brick and.......
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27 January 2016
Broomfield Conservatory's artist in residence for 2016 is Cathy Taylor. In conjunction with fellow Friend of Broomfield Park June Dawes, she will be exhibiting her botanical sculptures set among the hothouse plants in Broomfield Conservatory. The exhibition - Spirals of Life - starts this Sunday (31st January) and continues until the end of June........
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21 January 2016
An undercover film crew have revealed the existence of a strange sect in Broomfield Park.
Footage filmed last weekend shows grown men and women dancing around an apple tree decorated with pieces of dry toast.
Further investigations have discovered that this is an ancient ceremony known as wassailing, which also involves music and consumption of alcoholic beverages made from apple juice. The people taking part are clearly attempting to hide their identities by wearing hats and scarves but.......
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05 January 2016
The environmental group Thames 21 has issued a progress report on one of its north London projects - the Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge. During 2015 work was continued in Grovelands Park and along the Houndsden Gutter.
What is the Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge?
The Salmons Brook Healthy River Challenge is part of Thames 21's Love the Lea programme of work to improve the quality of the water in the River Lea, some of which is used to provide drinking water and some.......
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29 November 2015
The Friends of Broomfield Park have published a gallery of photographs taken at this year's ceremony in the park's Garden of Remembrance, along with a full report on the ceremony.
Links
Report
Photograph gallery.......
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28 November 2015
Within the next few weeks Enfield Council is hoping to start work to restore the double
avenue of trees in Broomfield Park which extends in a straight line across the whole of the top field from the western edge of the Park in the direction of the ornamental ponds and remains of Broomfield House. The avenues and the remains of a former
"causeway" running between the tree lines are regarded as important features relating to the Park's Baroque history.
The existing avenue of lime trees.......
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11 November 2015
Photograph: Alan Wexler (an entry in the 2015 Friends of Broomfield Park photo competition)
Broomfield Park could be named as the UK’s Best Park, in a new award programme set up by a national charity, Fields in Trust. The nomination, by one of the park’s users, says: It has everything: three ponds for ducks, remote control boats and meditating by, bandstand with summer concerts, grass for games, grass for picnics, community orchard and cafe, remains of Tudor house,.......
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