Very depressing news

Yesterday I photographed the latest batch of tress being unloaded and planted. Last night over half of them were destroyed by vandals.

More new tress

We had another delivery of trees for the park this morning, despite the weather. Senior Park Ranger Lydia tells me that these are lime trees. This was shot at around 9:20 today, and by 12:00 most of them had been planted - remarkable progress in the conditions, even if the holes had been dug a few days earlier, when the ground was not as hard ...

There is more activity at the 'top' (higher) end of the park, southern end, as well. Maple trees are going to be planted there, and it is also planned to provide some night-time lighting of the ruins, but I'm not sure what the activity below relates to (or perhaps it has nothing to do with the park, but it provided me with a 'different' photo of the ruins!).

Wintry Spring in Priory Park

Not surprisingly, the contractors could not do much in the park today - this was before 10:00am, and although it brightened up later, I can't imagine they managed to do anything later given the snow and the frozen ground.

1 of many in, a lot still to go!

There was a second delivery of trees today, and, as I understand it, more to come. At present they are all going into the central northern avenue, and when they are established and in leaf, we should have a real tree-lined avenue.

Work continues in the Rose Garden, the Lily Pond, and on re-surfacing one of the other north-end paths, and some of the roof timber is going in place on the pavilion:

Work at the north end of the park

New trees for the North Avenue arrived early today (in misty and murky conditions, apologies for the photo quality).

'Small trees from big molehills grow'! Yesterday's rather large 'molehills' have now been transformed.

Trees being put in place.

And meanwhile work is continuing on improving other paths in the north end of the park; one of the paths has now been cleared in preparation for re-tarmacing.

Update: I posted the above at about 15:15, but when I went to the shops 15 minutes later, more of the north end of the park was being fenced off - more news tomorrow I hope.

IT'S ALL HAPPENING IN PRIORY PARK!

There is so much happening in the park at present, it's difficult to keep up with things. Firstly, though, the 'molehills' that appeared today (19 March): new trees are going to be planted here, and should be in place within a day or so.

My thanks to the guys who were doing the work for the information, though if I had properly read an earlier email from Senior Park Ranger Lydia, I would have understood what they were doing.

The thing I focused on in Lydia's email was that work has begun on replacing the tarmac on paths at the north end of the park - this work will be done in stages, so that access should not be affected very much. Below is the picture I took earlier in the day - at the time, one of the paths had been cordoned off, and as I was thinking about this, I missed the mention of the tree planting.

While all these new developments are taking place, work is continuing on the Pavilion, the Rose Garden, and  around the Lily Pond.

It was hard work getting the funding, and seeing the planning process through, but it is so rewarding to see the progress that is being made now, and thanks again to everyone involved.

Reflections ...

... on the on-going work in Priory Park. After a very misty start, it turned bright for a couple of hours today, before clouding over again. Some of the paving on the north side of the pond has been relaid, and the ramp to the area under the monkey puzzle trees looks ready for paving as well.

The most visible progress in the last week has been around the Lily pond. The slabs have been lifted on the west side, and a lot of work has been done putting down hard core and sand, and now similar work is being done on the east side.

A ramp to give disabled access to the raised area under the monkey puzzle trees is also being built.

Freezing

It was a very cold morning, and there was very light snow on the ground - and on the frozen Lily Pond.   The conditions aren't making it easy for the contractors working on the park - not only must it be unpleasant and even painful working in these conditions, but if the ground, water, and anything damp are frozen, there are many jobs that just can't be done. The paving slabs on the west of the Lilly Pond have now been removed, and work is well underway to put down hard core and sand. I believe they hoped to re-open one of the paths through the Rose Garden this week, but it looks to me as though the weather may interfere with that plan. Likewise the frozen ground, water and some building materials are probably hindering progress on the Pavilion, though with all the steelwork now in place it is possible to get some idea of just how much of an improvement there will be. Finally, personally, as webmaster, I'd just like to thank the contractors, who continue working in difficult conditions, and are always friendly and helpful.

Steelwork for the pavilion extension now in place

The crane has  now gone, so I guess that most or all of the steelwork for the pavilion is now in place. This picture gives more of an impression than the previous ones of the size of the extension at the back of the present pavilion - shot on a wet and very misty day, and from behind the fencing around the pavilion.

Yesterday the steel-work went up on the right-hand side of the pavilion, today the more substantial structure on the left-hand side. Work is continuing around the Lily Pond. If you live locally, you don't need me to explain that it has been a wet and miserable day, not good for photography, and if you add the safety barriers around the site, it is difficult at present to get a decent picture of the work that is going on.

The steelwork for the extensions to the pavilion was delivered early this morning ...

... and by mid-day quite a lot of it had already been put up.

A large proportion of the new paving in the Rose Garden is now in place as well, and work has started on the paving around the Lily Pond.

Apologies for the quality of the photographs - the light has not been at all good today, and visibility early in the day was dreadful.

The new paving in the Rose Garden is going well - one side seems almost complete, and good progress is being made with the central path. Tomorrow we hope to see a significant development on the extensions to the pavilion.