Great Harwood Memorial Park, Hyndburn
28.11.2023
There will be no Wednesday volunteer session running in the park this week. However, If you’re free on Saturday, 2nd December, between 10am and 2pm you can join the team from Prospects for a community planting session at Memorial Park 🙂
The group will meet at the park entrance on Church Lane, BB6 7PR. All equipment will be provided, but please do make sure you wear warm clothes and suitable footwear.
This is a wonderful opportunity for you and your families to help improve local biodiversity, and we really hope to see you there!
If you have any questions, please email Brandon Cherry from Prospects, and he will be happy to help.
21.11.2023
Reminder…there will be another opportunity to take part in a volunteering session at Memorial Park tomorrow, 22nd November! This week, the team will be continuing with the removal of Rhododendron and Cherry Laurel inside Round Wood. All details are below, and if you have any questions, please email Brandon Cherry from Prospects, and he will be happy to help.
Time:Â 10am – 4pm
Meeting point: We will be meeting at the park entrance on Church Lane, BB6 7PR. Staff will be in orange hi-vis. There is on-street parking available.
Google Maps link HERE
What3Words Location: commutes.finders.jetliner
What to wear/bring: please wear sturdy steel-toe boots, long sleeves and trousers for brambles and nettles, weather appropriate clothing, and bring plenty of water. Gloves and other PPE will be provided. You will need to bring your own lunch and refreshments.
Facilities:Â There are no toilets on site.
Weather Forecast: Temperature around 10-11°, Light rain and a moderate breeze, 13-17 mph winds, 23-54% chance of precipitation.
Accessibility: well laid paths throughout the site, steep inclines, unseen trips in the woodland.Â
14.11.2023
Memorial Park Volunteering Opportunities!
The first memorial park volunteering session will take place this Wednesday, 15th November, between between 10am and 1pm. This session will focus on removing Rhododendron from the Biological Heritage Site, Roundwood.
The next sessions will be on Wednesday, 22nd November and they will run from 10am – 4pm. On this date there will be one woodland management training session and one Rhododendron bashing session.
All details for TOMORROW are below, but if you have any questions please email Brandon Cherry from Prospects, and he will be happy to help.
Date: 15th November, 2023
Meeting point: We will be meeting on Church Lane, Great Harwood, BB6 7PR. There is on-street parking available. Staff will be in orange hi-vis.
Google Maps link HERE
What3Words Location:Â nasal.albatross.shun
What to wear/bring: please wear sturdy steel-toe capped boots, long sleeves and trousers for brambles and nettles, weather appropriate clothing, and bring plenty of water. Gloves and other PPE will be provided. You will need to bring your own lunch and refreshments.
Facilities:Â There are no toilets on site.
Weather Forecast: Temperature around 9°, light rain showers and a moderate breeze, wind speeds between 15-16 mph, 25-29% chance of precipitation.
Accessibility:Â Well laid paths throughout the site, steep inclines present. Woodland is quite boggy.
05.10.2023
Despite the awful weather, the contractors from Wade Group have still made a good start at Great Harwood Memorial Park. If you’re visiting while the team are on site, please do take extra care.
As always, we’ll keep you updated on progress here – so do check back for regular updates!
26.09.2023
Contractors from Wade Group will begin work at Great Harwood Memorial Park on 2nd October, 2023. The works will be phased to avoid disruption to the site over Remembrance Sunday, with the path surfacing works being carried out first, followed by the walling and coping works after Remembrance Sunday.
The works include upgrading the existing paths and edging around the memorial garden, resurfacing around the base of the Memorial itself with new sandstone flags and edging, rebuilding the low wall to the rear of the Memorial Garden and installing a new coping to the top of the wall and replacing the missing copings to each side of the stone steps leading away from the Memorial.
It’s fantastic to get work started on site, and there are a lot more exciting updates to come – changes on site, activities, events and celebrations! We’ll keep you updated as things move forward. The project has been made possible thanks to funding from the teams at National Lottery Heritage Fund, Hyndburn Borough Council, the Levelling Up Fund and Lancashire Environmental Fund 🙂
19.09.2023
As part of this project, we’d love to work with an artist to create banners and interpretation panel artwork for the park. All of the details are available here: Artist Brief for Great Harwood Memorial Park Project
The deadline for tenders is 6th October, 2023 at 2pm.
24.07.2023
Exciting conversations with staff from St. Bartholomew’s Primary School, and a team from Accrington Library about the history of Great Harwood Memorial Park. We love uncovering more details about the people and places close by, and can’t wait to get local children more involved after the school holidays.
Until then… here are some great pictures which have been reproduced courtesy of Lancashire County Libraries. The first shows the original War Memorial in the park being unveiled by Mrs. Omerod and Major General Sir Neil Malcolm on 2nd October 1926. The second and third are extracts from the unveiling and dedication ceremony that took place on 29th May 1949, after the names of soldiers fallen in World War II were added.
06.06.2023
Since the funding for the project has been confirmed, we’ve been finalising plans for all of the works and activities that will take place during the project to improve Great Harwood Memorial Park.
Over the next 8-10 months, you’ll see a lot of changes on site including replacing damaged boundary railings, repairs to the war memorial itself and improvements to the memorial gardens, repairs to the old stone tree pits, tree management works, path upgrades, the installation of a new boardwalk, more bins / seating and tables, and even the installation of a bird box camera!
Community based activities to help people learn more about the history of the park, and opportunities to get hand on and volunteer with planting and other events will also be shared as the project progresses.
It’s taken us a little while to get here, but now we can’t wait to get started. We’ll share regular updates here, so do keep checking back for information 🙂
07.12.2022
Great news – the project team have now secured the funding needed for the Great Harwood Memorial Park improvements! The project has been made possible thanks to support from both Hyndburn Borough Council and Lancashire County Council, and the wonderful funding teams at Lancashire Environment Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
You can read more about it in the latest article published by the Lancashire Telegraph Great Harwood Park Get’s Makeover, and we’ll keep you updated on 2023 plans and progress as it happens too.
Thank you to everyone who has helped us get the project to this stage 🙂
08.06.2022
Thanks to everyone for their support with the project and consultations so far. We’re currently applying to, and speaking with, funders about securing the monies needed to make the improvements happen. We’ll let you know when we have more news, so do keep checking back here for updates!
14.12.2020
Just a reminder that there’s still time to let us have your thoughts and ideas for Great Harwood Memorial park. Click on the images below to enlarge the sketch design and take a look or click here to complete the survey. Thank you for your feedback!
 23.11.2020 – For survey click here
- Improve and repair the war memorial
- Improve the garden area surrounding the war memorial including repairs to boundary walls and features and better sensory planting
- Woodland Management
- Upgrading paths to improve accessibility
- Upgrading / improving site boundaries
- Installing interpretation boards with local history details displayed
 
(Click to enlarge image)
As part of the physical improvement project, the group would also explore the history of the park through activities with local residents who can share their memories of the gardens and memorial, and children who can find out more about local history and heritage.
Once the site improvements have been made, the aim is to increase footfall in the park by offering an events and activity programme for the wider community on an ongoing basis.
However, before we move forward with this, we’d like to give you the opportunity to share your thoughts and feedback about the plans with us. You can do this by clicking on the link here: Great Harwood Memorial Park Survey
The survey is very short and should only take a couple of minutes to complete. Thank you for your time.
1.02.2020
We are pleased to announce we have been given permission to work with Friends of Memorial Park and Hyndburn Borough Council to try and attract investment into the memorial park. The work will focus on improving accessibility and the history of the memorial park and of the war memorial within the park as well as memories of local people of Great Harwood. The aim of the project is also to work with the Friends Group, Hyndburn Borough Council and the community to raise funds to improve the park. Specifically:
- The garden area surrounding the war memorial. This might include an awareness raising project with local children and/or war histories of local families, repairs to boundary walls and features; repairs to the memorial itself and better sensory planting (low maintenance)
- Increase colour in the park through low maintenance planting such as bulbs, wildflowers and shrubs; not flower beds
- Woodland management and upgrading paths – improving accessibility
- Upgrade/improve site boundaries
- Assess possibility of bringing stone outbuilding into use as learning resource for kids and community
- Increase footfall in the park with events and activity programme
- Create opportunities to engage with local senior citizens centre and Townfield House
- Interpret history of the park through activities, permanent displays and online material
