Friends of Nuttall Park, Ramsbottom, Bury
Annual Report 2024
17[th] March 2025
Registered Charity number: 1181981
Friends of Nu�all Park Chair’s Report for the year ending 31[st] December 2024
2024 has been a busy year for the Friends of Nuttall Park and included a number of events held on the completed bandstand.
Many of the proposals from last year’s AGM have been completed along with other improvements and this has resulted in yet another very successful year for Friends of Nuttall Park.
Two new members were welcomed onto the committee and they have both contributed greatly to the success of the group. They help with Maintenance, the Gardening Group, in the Tea Room, on Task Days and at Events and liaise with the Gardening Group and other Community Groups.
Our volunteers tackle many aspects of care and concern for Nuttall Park and we hold Task Days during the year when drain cleaning and path tidying are top of the list.
The weather this year has been particularly challenging causing the River Irwell to burst its banks on a number of occasions. Thank you to the volunteers who arrived with mops and wellingtons so that the Tea Room has been able to open as usual and people could continue to enjoy Nuttall Park.
Bury Council have refurbished the playground with the addition of a number of pieces of new equipment along with a larger bonded mulch safety surfacing and everything is now looking bright and newly painted.
We have investigated the installation of an additional piece of equipment for the playground and hope to progress this in early 2025.
The Base Tea Room continues to be a very popular meeting place and the donations we receive enable us to do lots of maintenance and improvements to Nuttall Park. It is beneficial to the wellbeing of those who visit and those who volunteer.
We have been able to purchase and install two more wheelchair accessible picnic tables and four large animal carvings to add interest around the park.
Donations have been used to contribute 50% to a new heated defibrillator box which was organised by Ramsbottom Rotary and we now have a Bleed Box in Nuttall Park.
We have funded some tree management around the Base Tea Room which makes the area lighter and now have a larger patio area which makes it a better place for people sitting out and a flat area for a gazebo.
The bandstand has been jet washed and used many times during the year including as the focal point for the Junior Park Run on Sunday mornings.
Many people have enjoyed performances on the bandstand by a variety of local musical groups including various Brass Bands, a Ukulele Band, a local choir, Bury Music Service Rock Band, and other Rock Musicians.
This year we organised and funded something on the first Sunday of the 5 summer months, May to September, and were able to pay the musicians from the donations raised in the Tea Room and at Events. Our plan is to continue with this pattern in 2025 and also to encourage other groups and individuals to take advantage of the bandstand for their events.
17[th] March 2025
Registered Charity number: 1181981
Nuttall Park was a focal point during the Ramsbottom Festival in July. There were many stalls, eateries and children’s entertainment sessions in the park and the bandstand was used extensively over 2 days. Friends of Nuttall Park’s Tea Room and Cake Stall were very well supported and resulted in a profit from donations after funding Besses o’ th’ Barn Brass Band.
The following annual events have also taken place –
Love Your Park Week in August was well supported with the Tea Room open for 9 days with craft and outdoor games provided. Ramsbottom Running Club held their Summer Mile Festival during the week.
The Lantern Parade was one of our most successful with many people enjoying hot food and drinks and parading around Nuttall Park with their lighted pumpkin lanterns. The Parade was so long, some people were only just leaving the start point when others were halfway round the park’s perimeter path. There was a lovely excited atmosphere from the local community.
Our December festivities included a very successful Seasonal Craft Day which is organised each year by 4 of our volunteers when they provide the materials and help children to make seasonal decorations along with a visit from Santa Claus on Christmas Eve.
The Gardening Group were busy from March to November as Steve’s report shows -
The main project for 2024 was the redevelopment of the Centre Bed. In 2023 the bed was star�ng to look overgrown and unkempt and had a lot of old plants past their best. We removed some plants and intended to con�nue some general �dying in 2024. However, the bed was overrun with ground elder and it was a good opportunity to try and tackle it. Over a number of weeks most plants were removed and the ground elder a�acked. We have added a raised bed in the middle and a few tons of new topsoil.
We also replanted the Bu�erfly Bed and the Phormium Bed by the carpark and added more flowering shrubs to the Tennis Court Bed. There are two Incredible Edible beds in the park which they have abandoned and this year we made some headway with recovering them. The fruit bed has been completely dug over and numerous self-seeded small trees removed so the exis�ng plants now have room to grow. We also have a plan to plant up the second bed but that is currently overrun with mint.
The Walkway adjacent to the car park and leading to the Stumpery was planted up and a new small bed was created by the compound using donated plants.
In all our beds it has been a con�nuing process of weeding, pruning, dividing& adding plants, and watering. We planted an addi�onal 500 daffodils and 750 crocus bulbs, planted up the large carpark containers with annuals, repaired benches and maintained the Mud Kitchen. We also cleared fallen trees and branches to maintain access around the park and found �me to hold a successful plant sale. On the down side the main car park bed was driven over on two separate occasions which caused a lot of damage including to the large Kilmarnock Willow.
The beds were flooded on three separate occasions, the first causing considerable damage to the beds and we did some addi�onal days’ work to remove debris. Unfortunately, we lost Bill's Hibernaculum to the repairs to the bowling green fence as a result of flooding.
We also lost about seven days in full or in part due to adverse weather and during the �me there were travellers on site.Overall the park beds looked good and we got lots of compliments as we went about our work. Steve Cross
All these things would not take place without our dedicated group of volunteers and we cannot thank them enough. We are looking forward to another successful year keeping Nu�all Park up to Green Flag standards.
Gwenda Newton Chair, Friends of Nu�all Park
17[th] March 2025
Registered Charity number: 1181981
Friends of Nu�all Park Annual Accounts to 31/12/2024
Monetary Assets
| Monetary Assets | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Account | 31/12/2024 | Diference | 31/12/2023 |
| Santander | £1,583.17 | -£792.38 | £2,375.55 |
| RBS | £430.49 | -£171.01 | 601.5 |
| Tea Room Float | £20.00 | £0.00 | £20.00 |
| Cash | £0.00 | -£231.36 | £231.36 |
| Epworth Savings | £21,877.72 | -£965.71 | £22,843.43 |
| Grand Total | £23,911.38 | -£2,160.46 | £26,071.84 |
Yearly profit before Park Improvements £9,530 – Park Improvements £11,690 = -£2,160
Summary of Receipts and Payments in 2024 compared to 2023
| Receipts | ||
|---|---|---|
| Category | 2024 | 2023 |
| Base | £180.00 | £255.00 |
| Donations | £1,425.00 | £3,325.20 |
| Events | £5,079.26 | £4,664.46 |
| Gardening Group | £252.77 | £298.85 |
| Interest | £934.29 | £843.43 |
| Tea Room | £12,603.01 | £12,868.44 |
| Grand Total | £20,474.33 | £22,255.38 |
| Payments | ||
| Category | 2024 | 2023 |
| Base | -£1,267.69 | -£951.98 |
| Events | -£2,680.83 | -£2,896.68 |
| Gardening Group | -£1,826.69 | -£1,180.77 |
| General Expenses/Maintenance -£1,162.12 | -£582.95 | |
| Park Improvements | -£11,690.58 | -£23,266.93 |
| Tea Room | -£4,147.78 | -£3,620.14 |
| Grand Total | -£22,634.79 | -£32,499.45 |
| Park Improvements in 2024 £11,690 | ||
| Pa�o Extension | £4,250 | |
| Picnic Benches | £4,099 | |
| Wood Carvings | £1,501 | |
| Tree Pruning | £1,440 | |
| Defbrillator Case | £400 |
17[th] March 2025
Registered Charity number: 1181981