Book about Parks

It is a horrid rainy day.  Perfect to curl up with a book.  How about these?

Shark in the Park on a Windy Day! by Nick Sharratt

 

 

A Walk in the Park by Anthony Browne

Spot's Walk in the Woods : A Rebus Book by Eric Hill

 

 

 

 

Rabbits in the Park: A Book of Colours by Natalie Russell

Shortlist announced for UK's Best Park

THREE parks from across the UK have been shortlisted following a nationwide search by Fields in Trust, to find a green space worthy of claiming the title of 'UK's Best Park' - sadly, Cuthill Park wasn't one of them.

The three parks, located in Aberdeen, Worcester and Telford, were selected after they each received the most number of public votes following 122 parks being nominated for the title. 

Over eight thousand public votes were cast throughout the voting process.

The 'UK's Best Park' award forms part of the charity's annual awards ceremony which takes place at Lord's Cricket Ground in London on Wednesday 2nd December and celebrates the great work being done in parks and playgrounds across the UK. Eleven awards will be handed out on the night, with this being the first year that the ceremony has featured a category voted entirely by the public.

The search for the country's best park started around a month ago when communities across the country were encouraged to nominate and vote for their favourite local park, sports field or playground they believed would be worthy of the title.

The parks shortlisted are:

Duthie Park in Aberdeen
Owned by Aberdeen City Council, the park was nominated by Aberdeen-based parenting blogger, Lifewithmunchers.com who said "Not only is it host to regular events for the city, but as the home of the Winter gardens, boating pond, vast green areas and the most outstanding kids' play areas, this park is a great all rounder for a family day out".

Gheluvelt Park in Worcester
Owned by Worcester City Council, the park was nominated by the council because of its interactive water feature, play area surrounded by well maintained gardens a natural area with exercise equipment and views of the River Severn. The park is protected with Fields in Trust as a Centenary Field.

Telford Town Park in Shropshire
Owned by Telford & Wrekin Council, the park was nominated by a member of 'Friends of Telford Town Park', a group which started in 2003 to help give the park extra care and attention. A member of the friends group nominated the park because of the range of attractions new play features, a sensory garden a fantastic mix of biodiversity and nature reserve as well as the more formal gardens. "Something for everyone in other words". A section of the field is protected with FIT as a Queen Elizabeth II Field.

The winner of the 'UK's Best Park' title will be announced at the awards ceremony on Wednesday 2nd December in London.

Fields in Trust, which was founded 90 years ago by King George V, has a mission to ensure that everyone – young or old, able-bodied or disabled and wherever they live – should have access to free, local outdoor space for sport, play and recreation.

Helen Griffiths, Fields in Trust Chief Executive said: "Our annual awards celebrate the contributions and achievements of people and organisations who are passionate about green spaces and we thought what better way to reflect this than to have an award category voted by the public.

"We have been overwhelmed by the response we have received to the 'UK's Best Park' award, both with the number of nominations we received and the number of votes cast. What it tells us is that people really do care about their local parks and they are passionate about what they are used for. This was also reflected in some recent research we carried out which revealed that 95% of people believe that parks and play areas should be protected from development."

Other categories at the annual awards ceremony, include, Fields in Trust Community Champion which celebrates advocates of green spaces across the UK, as well as Best Play Initiative to reward those who have encouraged more play and increase usage of a site.

Helen, continued: "All of our candidates shortlisted for our awards ceremony are worthy winners. We wish them all the very best of luck on Wednesday!"

More about the awards can be found online.

Think that Cuthill Park is the best in the country?

Voting for the UK's Best Park, as voted by YOU! is now open!

You can vote for any of the nominated parks as the UK's Best Park before the vote closes at 5pm on Wednesday 25th November.

The three parks with the most votes will then be shortlisted with the winning park announced at the Fields in Trust Awards Ceremony at Lord's Cricket Ground on Wednesday 2nd December.

Cuthill Park is one of only 9 parks in Scotland to be nominated.

We are proud of how much has been achieved in a relatively short space of time and really hope everyone in East Lothian will get behind us and cast their vote (it doesn't take long!) for Cuthill Park.

Click here to vote.

Top 2 Attractions in Prestonpans!

We are on Trip Advisor!

We are officially the second most popular attraction in Prestonpans (after Prestongrange Museum)!!!!!!

We'd love it if you could leave us a review!

The Grand Opening!

Today was the Grand Opening of the play area & community garden in Cuthill Park, combined with the Big Lunch, organised by the Prestongrange & Cuthill Tenants & Residents Group and the Friends of Cuthill Park. The weather was beautiful and the park was full of people from the local community. 

Willie Innes, the head of East Lothian Council, spoke of the journey the park has been on, from a neglected area to what we see today.

Stuart Pryde of East Lothian Council was also in attendance, and his contribution to the progress of the park over the past years was recognised. 

The ribbon, held by Veronica Davidson of PCTRG and Zoe Inglis of the Friends of Cuthill Park, was cut by Josh Taylor, our local Olympic Boxer, watched by Stuart Pryde & Willie Innes. 

Some of the people who have helped in the development of the various aspects of the park: 

Left to right - Stuart Pryde, ELC; Zoe Inglis, chair of FoCP; Veronica Davidson, PCTRG; Josh Taylor, who grew up playing in and around Cuthill Park; Cllr Willie Innes, ELC; and Elders Green & Hornberger of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), representing Elders & Sisters from the LDS church who have helped in the park on various projects over the past 3 years. Our grateful thanks go to all of our volunteers! 

Following the formal opening there were activities running the length & breadth of the park. 

Sack races and parachute games were organised by Martin Whitfield.

East Coast FM provided music, entertainment, & giant bears, and were invaluable in announcing events. 

The library ran their BookBug Rhymetime session in the park. 

More races, including Tattie Tossing & Welly Whanging followed, with prizes given out by Josh Taylor. 

A wonderful day of community celebration! Thank you to everyone who came, and especially to everyone who has given their time, talents and means over the years to help Cuthill Park to become what it is today. 

Meeting - Thu 16th July

There will be a meeting of the Friends of Cuthill Park, joint with Prestongrange & Cuthill Tenants & Residents Group, at 

7pm on Thursday 16th July

at the Goth, Prestonpans

The meeting is to continue planning the park's official opening & Big Lunch for August 29th. 

Please do come along, even if you haven't previously attended a meeting. 

Want to do Orienteering in Cuthill Park?

British Orienteering is offering its popular Xplorer package free to the first 50 groups that complete the brief questionnaire explaining why they want to run Xplorer in their park.

 

This is a unique opportunity to be involved in getting a local community out and active in their park with Xplorer.  In preparation for Love Parks week (24 July - 2 August 2015) British Orienteering want to support groups in their fantastic work by providing all they need to encourage families to come and explore their green spaces.

 

In return for agreeing to hold a minimum of six Xplorer events before Halloween, Friends of the Park Groups will receive a free map of their park site and a kit bag full of a large selection of markers, supplementary Xplorer equipment and publicity materials (including Xplorer sail banners certificates and stickers) - everything needed to put on exciting beginner orienteering activities in Cuthill Park park.

Xplorer is a popular outdoor navigation challenge for all the family. It's perfect for primary and pre-school children and older children and adults can join in too. Using a simple map, participants have to find markers located around the park and identify what is pictured and learn a fun fact. Older children can compete against friends and family to see who can complete the course in the quickest time and younger children will enjoy the excitement of finding the markers.

 

To learn more or find an Xplorer event near you visit www.xplorer.org.uk. 

 

Xplorer's Head of Development Craig Anthony said, “Xplorer has been running in select locations in England for the past two years and attracted over 60,000 people to take part during that time. We have seen the benefit of working with groups who really care about their local green space and want to work with more like minded groups.”

 

As a small group, the Friends of Cuthill Park are already spread quite thinly and would struggle to take on another commitment but, if you or your group would like to see Orienteering taking place in the park, then this is a great chance to make it happen and you won't be on your own as The Friends of Cuthill Park can help with publicity.

If this is something you are interested in, let us know by emailing friendsofcuthillpark@hotmail.com.  Interested groups should complete the questionnaire as soon as possible, the first 50 groups will receive the Xplorer package. 

Murals - Day 2

And here's how the murals looked at the end of a rather wet & windy day two:

Mural Festival - Day 1

With just a few hours of painting left on day one, here's how the murals are looking.

Tom Ewing & community members: 

Ken Wilson:

Paul Dalrymple: 

Zoe Inglis: 

And while our artists were busy, we had a nature detective trail, which proved popular, and a bug hunt:

And the children organised their own impromptu sack races: 

We still have wildflower seeds to give away, & pavement chalk available for anyone to use in the park tomorrow. 

Please come along & join us! If you're out watching the marathon why not pop into Cuthill Park for a visit? 

The murals are under way!

A beautiful sunny morning here in the park, and our artists are just beginning their work.

Tom Ewing begins the community mural - come along today or tomorrow to add your own piece of artwork to this: 

And Ken Wilson is off to a cracking start: 

With Paul Dalrymple and Zoe Inglis just starting:

Come and watch as things progress over the weekend. 

Activities for everyone ...

Today (Saturday), 1-3pm in Cuthill Park - various activities for everyone to join in! 

Go bug hunting, colour a mask, make your own moth, try the Nature Detectives' challenge, help with the community mural ... 

Or try your hand at some pavement art: 

Or enter our competition to create a face from as many different natural materials as possible: 

And more!

Try building your own twig tower. How high can you build? How much weight can it hold? 

Did you know you can use the sap from dandelions as invisible ink? Write a secret message! 

Mural Festival This Weekend!

This weekend, 11-6pm Saturday & Sunday, Cuthill Park will host the Mural Festival, as part of the 3 Harbours Art Festival. 

Four artists are competing to create a prize-winning mural based on the theme of Biodiversity. Tom Ewing (one of our well known local artists) will be creating a fifth mural with the help of anyone & everyone who would like to join in. 

There will be some nature-related activities for children/families to take part in, free of charge, between 1-3pm on the Saturday only. We have a box of goodies from Fields in Trust which we will be using - some to give away to enthusiastic young gardeners and environmentalists. 

So, come along & join us to celebrate art, nature, and community in our beautiful park - & while you're at it, feel free to add a bee, butterfly, flower, cloud - or whatever your imagination can link to biodiversity - on our community mural. 

Working in the Sunshine.

Today was a beautiful day for gardening😊

Look how great the newly covered paths look (thanks to various children & Elders Hornberger & Erickson): 

And Josie dug a whole bed all by herself. Go Josie! 

And the corner full of nettles has been reclaimed - thank you Emma! 

And another bed frame was built & placed & a few others repaired, thanks to Matthew: 

And the container has been cleared out & reorganised, too (sorry, no photo - it's not as pretty as the rest of the garden!). We did rediscover sports equipment & a road mat though: