Gardening Sessions are on the 2nd Tuesday (9.30am) & 4th Wednesday (1.00pm) of each month. As start times vary between Winter and Summer, please check Facebook or the regular newsletters for latest details.
2020 Dates
January: 14th and 22nd February: 11th and 26th March: 10th and 25th April: 14th and 22nd May: 12th and 27th June: 9th and 24th July: 14th and 22nd Aug: 11th and 26th Sept: 8th and 23rd Oct: 13th and 28th Nov: 10th and 25th Dec: 8th
Volunteer update and activities – September 2020
Thank you to everyone who came along to our volunteer sessions in August. We had fifteen litter pickers in the children’s play park.
We will continue to follow advice and guidelines from Green Sefton and Sefton Council, and the relevant measures will be taken to ensure the safety of the attendees by compliance with current regulations.
Our 2019 Scarecrow Festival was a big success for the 11th year running. The weather was lovely all day and we estimate that this was the highest attended Festival we have ever hosted with numbers in the thousands. We raised around £1500 for our funds which will be used to improve the Gardens for the benefit of the whole community.
We would like to thank everyone who helped make the day a success: the volunteers who helped set up the day and run games and stalls; the independent stallholders and entertainers – Punch and Judy and the bouncy castle were big hits with the children as usual, as was the face-painting by Beccie French. Some new additions for this year were also welcome: Kitchen Street Cooking who provided great hot food, and excellent musical entertainment from the Travelling Wannabes ukulele band.
Thank you also to everyone who made cakes and donated plants to sell on our own stalls, especially Tony Almonds and Magill’s Nurseries who were very generous. Finally, and most importantly, a big thank you to all those who made Scarecrows for the competition. The quality of entries was very high for our ‘Mystery, Myth and Magic’ theme and our judges had a hard time choosing between them. We had several categories in this year’s competition with entries from groups as well as individuals. Our winners were:
Child category: ‘Bad Witch’ by Leanne Dixon Group category: ‘Cloak of Invisibility’ by 3rd Crosby Brownies Family category: ‘Dobby’ by Jo Mercer
More photos of the day can be found on our Facebook page, courtesy of Heather Currie and Karen Abram.
Our latest newsletter letting everyone know what Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens is currently involved in.
Ongoing Projects
We are currently working with the Council on railing and brickwork restoration, plus replacement noticeboards. Additional railings have been ordered by the Council and these will hopefully be installed soon. We are in the process of arranging for each Garden to have a new noticeboard as the current boards are no longer fit for purpose.
Sefton Council are currently holding a consultation on the future of Crosby Coastal Park. Our Seafront Gardens form part of this and it is a chance to tell the council your views. If you have not already completed the consultation it can be found online at yourseftonyoursay.sefton.gov.uk/ Events.
Weather permitting, we now have Yoga classes every Saturday at 10am. These will continue for as long as the weather allows.
Our Scarecrow Festival this year will take place on Saturday 21st September, starting at 12.30pm. Our theme for this year is Mystery, Myth and Magic, so get those thinking caps on now! Also, if you would be free to help us set up/take down on the day, or would be able to run a stall/game for us, please do let us know. Any help would be very much appreciated.
Regular Volunteer Activities
Thank you to everyone who has come along to our litter picking and gardening sessions throughout the year. We now have 15-20 volunteers for most of our litter picking sessions and around 5-8 gardeners at our gardening sessions. Our rockery and raised flower bed were also recently judged for the North West in Bloom scheme – watch this space for the results later in the summer.
Throughout the year we will be litter picking on the second Saturday of each month from 10:30 until 11:30. Full details can be found on our website and Facebook page.
Our gardening sessions take place on the second Tuesday of each month commencing 9:30am, and the fourth Wednesday of each month commencing at 7pm (summer) or 1pm (winter). For all gardening sessions we meet outside Waterloo Place café.
Equipment is provided for all volunteer activities and we have tea and biscuits afterwards. Everyone is welcome and there is no need to commit to regular attendance – simply turn up when you are able. All help is appreciated.
Local community group Friends of Waterloo Seafront Gardens unveiled a brand new ‘toposcope’ at the historic Adelaide Garden site this week.
Councillor Veronica Webster and Rosemary Gordon, Chair of the Friends group, marked the occasion on Tuesday 25th April by thanking an anonymous local benefactor who made a generous donation to help a produce the toposcope, as well as local residents and volunteers who work tirelessly to maintain the seafront gardens.
The original toposcope, which is a mounted directional plate and similar in appearance to a sundial – was removed from the seafront gardens in the early 1970s.
Volunteers were unable to locate any photographs of the original directional plate design, but with the help of Sefton Libraries service they were able to replicate the original size and shape for the garden’s centre-piece from historic photographs of the seafront gardens.
The directional plate shows the geographical distance between Adelaide Garden and a number of worldwide landmarks – including New York and Australia, as well as places of interest closer to home including the Liver Bird buildings and the nearby Burbo Bank windfarm.
