On Tuesday 30th around 180 Parkland Infant School children, staff and helpers joined the Friends of The Hampden Park to plant 500 bluebells in a woodland glade near the tennis courts in Hampden Park. The scheme is a further enhancement of an area of undergrowth cleared by the Friends earlier in the year.
Care was taken to ensure that the bluebells planted are all of the native British species, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, and not the imported Spanish or Italian kinds. In recent times there have been concerns that these imported species are hybridising too easily with the English plants to the detriment of the long term purity of the native species in Britain.
After all their hard work the children were also given snowdrop bulbs to grow at school and possibly return to plant in the Park at a later date.
Princes Park Herb Garden
Council contractors have recently completed the rebuilding of the low retaining walls around the beds in Princes Park Herb Garden.
The walls had suffered many years of decay and temporary repairs were no longer the best answer. Now all of the walls have been rebuilt using a large proportion of recycled material.
Glorious Autumn Colours
The present spell of settled weather has allowed many trees to retain their leaves while they develop a spectacular array of autumn colours.
Throughout the region many wooded areas have turned all shades of golden yellow, orange and red. In Eastbourne the larger parks such as Gildredge Park and Hampden Park (pictured) are currently worth visiting with your camera. Sadly the leaves will soon fall if we have a windy spell.
Bird Talk
The Friends of The Hampden Park extended an invitation to a free RSPB talk about the bird life in Hampden Park.
Mr. Kim Parks of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds gave the illustrated talk at St. Mary's Church Hall, Decoy Drive, on Friday 19th October. The assembled audience found the information extremely interesting and a question and answer session followed.
Refreshments were available and donations contributed towards the funds.
