San I apologise for not keeping this website up to date, a lot of our day to day activities are now put onto our Facebook page,
The Friends Group continues to achieve awards from RHS and Green flag, which is excellent news as we continue to try to make the Vale as user friendly as possible, we have recently worked with a number of partners, including Greenside School, Manchester and District Orienteering Club, Tameside MBC/Health Improvements, to provide a Duck Trail around the Vale, this followed on from an idea by some of the pupils from Greenside who placed paper drawings of ducks on trees around the Vale. The drawings have now been transferred onto aluminium plaques and fixed onto posts which have been placed around the Vale and can be followed by all users, information regarding the trail can be accessed via QR codes which are attached to the posts, via the school website greenside.tameside.sch.uk. or https://link.ee/sunnybankvaleducktrail?utm-source=qr-code. We were also very pleased to be contacted by ST Martins Scout Group, who offered to help on our work party in February (2023), the Scouts, Cubs and Beavers did a great job with litter picking and placing bird boxes around the Vale, over 20 bags of litter was collected, feedback from the group was very encouraging, some even said they wanted to come back, all in all an excellent couple of years. We still need more volunteers so if you have time on your hands, come and see if its for you, we meet on the 3rd Sunday of every month at 10.30am on the green on Peakdale Road Droylsden, we then make our way onto the Vale and tend to anything that need doing. Our next work party is Sunday 19th March 2023. Everyone welcome, no equipment needed just wellies or strong footwear, hope to see you there Some Excellent News . The Friends of Sunny Bank Vale have received the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service. You will appreciate that this is a fantastic achievement for a small group such as ours and a tribute to all our hard work, imagination and dedication to make Sunny Bank Vale what it is. The Queen's Award is the highest award that any charity, social enterprise or voluntary group can receive and we are one of 230 to be awarded in the whole of the UK in 2020. It is the equivalent of an MBE We as a group are very proud and honoured to have received the award, it really is the icing on the cake for us, The Vale is looking great at the moment and although it is exceptional circumstances it is being used by a large number of people for recreational purposes which is great to see. Our pond is full of tadpoles at the moment, however it is short of water due to the recent good weather, this changed a little today 03/06/20 with the first rain for a number of weeks. Since the last update we have received more awards from the RHS, our most recent being The Best Large Neighbourhood North West In Bloom Trophy which we have won for two consecutive years. Work continues with the resurrection of our work parties which have been put on hold due to Covid. We aim to continue our efforts to make The Vale a useable green space for local residents and visitors and to attract wildlife onto it. If you would like to assist come along to one of our future work parties details of which can be found on our Facebook page and the Calendar page on this site. More good news, as well as receiving our 5th level 5 'Outstanding' award from RHS Britain in Bloom, our Green Flag award was also renewed, but to cap it all we were also rewarded with receiving the RHS award for the best large green space area in the NORTH WEST, this came as a complete shock and we were very pleased to receive the award, tribute must go to all the volunteers and sponsors who helped us to achieve this. we also made a bid for funding through Tesco's bags of help appeal, we were successful and received a sum of money which has helped with maintenance on the Greenside Lane to Haven Drive path. Bird feeder boxes have also been erected around the Vale to provide a place for bird seed to be stored and fed to the birds during the winter period, we have also started prep work for another pond near to the Peakdale Road entrance. Our first pond is establishing itself and is looking good, plant /insect life is flourishing, and a heron has been seen there very recently. there has also been sighting of deer on the Vale, and near to the pond. Work will continue through the year to ensure that the high standards are kept and the Vale continues to attract members of the community, Details of work party dates can be found on the calendar on the events page. Thank you all for your support and we will continue our work to improve Sunny Bank Vale, and make it a great place for all users of all ages. ************************************************************************************************************************ Firstly we received (as a Friends Group) our fourth Level 5 "Outstanding" Britain in Bloom award from the RHS to go with our third Green Flag awarded earlier this year, so well done to everyone for keeping up the standard on the Vale. We now have two new wood chippings paths. One from Haven Drive to the path from Edge Lane to the Greenside Lane/Ansdell Drive path. The second is from the edge of the field at Peakdale Road up the slope to the path behind the houses on Peakdale Road. This was very muddy and slippery last winter. The path from Haven Drive is completed, but the other path requires more wood chippings. It was hoped we could get donations of chippings however this wasn't posible and therefore, we had to buy in more loads of chippings than expected. Hopefully we may have enough funds to buy another three bags of chippings and get them laid on this path at a future work party or midweek. The two existing paths also need to be topped up but this may have to wait until next year, providing we get the funding for another maintenance agreement. The metal plates on the site that display the dates of future work parties have yet to recruit any new volunteers. So it is suggested that they be converted into direction sign boards. Using adhesive notices provided by the former Air Products company, we can get direction signs to four different locations. This would certainly help anyone who is unfamiliar with the geography of the site. If anyone has any comments or suggestions please let us know via our contacts page or Facebook page. Finally the next work party is on 26th November all welcome meeting at 11am Peakdale Road Green. ************************************************************************************************************************ The pond has now been lined and water has started to fill it, there is further work needed around the perimeter and this will hopefully be started soon. More wildflower areas have been dug out and prepared ready for planting in spring.
Weare looking forward to another New Year which will hopefully be as succesful as last year. A big thank you to all that have helped once again to make the Vale an award winning Green Space. (Success in both Green Flag and RHS awards) Our 2017 calendar has been updated with the work party dates, please feel free to come along and join us, as usual our meeting place will be Peakdale Road green at 11am on the dates shown . There will be a work party starting at 10am on Friday 14th October, Saturday 15th, Sunday 16th, Monday 17th. The Friends will be joined by Tameside Greenspace Volunteers and together we will be constructing a pond near to Haven Drive entrance and adjacent to the path which links Haven Drive and Greenside Lane/Briarwood entrance. All welcome to come along and help, start time will be around 10am, meeting at Greenside Lane opposite the Pig on the Wall. Stout boot/shoes or Wellingtons should be worn, and bring a spade if you can. Any time you can spare will be great to help construct the pond, which hopefully will encourage more wildlife to the Vale. If you can't make the start time just turn up seek us out, and join us. |
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The 24th May saw our first Flora walk take place hosted by the Bamforth Brothers who are both volunteers with Tameside Countryside Volunteer Group.
The evening was a great success, and was attended by 11 people. The walk lasted about 2 hours and many plants and grasses were identified, please see our Flora/Fauna page for pictures and names of identified species.
The planter at Greenside Lane entrance opposite the Pig On The Wall is now well established and we have a good display of Poppies and Honeysuckle along with other species of plants.
Our award winning planter at the Edge Lane entrance is again flourishing, with newly sown seeds showing in their splendour, they are also attracting many bees and butterflies.
We are awaiting the showing of the flowers from the seeds that were sown in the planter adjacent to the Greenside/Haven Drive path. The recent spell of dry weather hasn't helped but who's complaining.
Our pond is nearing completion it has been dug out and is awaiting a liner to be fitted, this should hopefully be completed in the very near future.
Again I will make an appeal for volunteers, if you are reading this page and you haven't attended our work parties you are very welcome to do so.
All future dates can be found on our calendar page.
There is a Droylsden Better Together event taking place on Saturday 18th June 2016 at Droylsden Academy starting at 10am and finishing around 2pm, the last event which took place in 2011 was well attended by community groups and this years event promises to be just as successful, come along and find out about more community groups/events in Droylsden.
Hadfield Droylsden have once again assisted with making 'The Vale' a nicer place to visit , with a generous donation that has gone towards the cost of a finishing off the footpath leading to Collinwood Avenue.
Thank you all for your support and we will continue our work to improve Sunny Bank Vale, and make it a great place for all users of all ages.
The evening was a great success, and was attended by 11 people. The walk lasted about 2 hours and many plants and grasses were identified, please see our Flora/Fauna page for pictures and names of identified species.
The planter at Greenside Lane entrance opposite the Pig On The Wall is now well established and we have a good display of Poppies and Honeysuckle along with other species of plants.
Our award winning planter at the Edge Lane entrance is again flourishing, with newly sown seeds showing in their splendour, they are also attracting many bees and butterflies.
We are awaiting the showing of the flowers from the seeds that were sown in the planter adjacent to the Greenside/Haven Drive path. The recent spell of dry weather hasn't helped but who's complaining.
Our pond is nearing completion it has been dug out and is awaiting a liner to be fitted, this should hopefully be completed in the very near future.
Again I will make an appeal for volunteers, if you are reading this page and you haven't attended our work parties you are very welcome to do so.
All future dates can be found on our calendar page.
There is a Droylsden Better Together event taking place on Saturday 18th June 2016 at Droylsden Academy starting at 10am and finishing around 2pm, the last event which took place in 2011 was well attended by community groups and this years event promises to be just as successful, come along and find out about more community groups/events in Droylsden.
Hadfield Droylsden have once again assisted with making 'The Vale' a nicer place to visit , with a generous donation that has gone towards the cost of a finishing off the footpath leading to Collinwood Avenue.
Thank you all for your support and we will continue our work to improve Sunny Bank Vale, and make it a great place for all users of all ages.