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CALNE - CASTLEFIELDS CANAL & RIVER PARK ASSOCIATION (CARP)
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Latest News - October 2021
BART (Bristol Avon Rivers Trust) will be removing one of the weirs on the River Marden as it runs through the park.
This will help improve the habitats along the Marden by restoring the natural flow of the river
The weir removal is planned to start on the week of Monday 8th November and is likely to take 4-5 days. Click on the image for a larger version.
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CALNE CIVIC AWARDS, Certificate of Achievement
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CASTLEFIELDS-POCKET PARK MAKEOVER With the help of grants and donations from: Landfill Community Fund- The Hills Group Ltd, Calne Area Board, Calne Town Council, Haine & Smith Charitable Trust, and Chalford Building Supplies the paths in the Pocket Park have been upgraded to a composite surface. CARP volunteers have been very busy renovating the planted areas with gravel and new plants. The Castlefields Pocket Park was first initiated in 2005 with a grant from ‘Peoples Places Awards. There
is still some planting and other works to do but the revamp of the ‘Castlefields
Pocket Park’ Is almost complete.
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WINTER FESTIVAL 2019 Calne's Winter festival proved very popular as usual this year and CARP's stall was very busy throughout the afternoon and evening. We are very pleased to say that we raised a total of £180.80 towards our work in the park. Many thanks to all our supporters and helpers. Please CLICK HERE for more photos of the day.
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CALNE IN BLOOM 2019 awards. In this year's RHS 'It's your neighbourhood' awards Castlefields again received 'L5 outstanding'. Congratulations and a great big thank you to everybody for all of the your work. Our grateful thanks to Waitrose. CARP would like to thank Waitrose of Chippenham and it's costumers for their recent donation of £78.00 towards our work in the park.
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CROCUS CORM PLANTING. CARP volunteers were joined by members and friends of Calne Rotary at their work party on Sunday 15 September. Between them they planted 4000 crocus corms as part of the Rotary Club's 'End Polio NOW' international campaign thank you to River Warriors, Calne Cubs and Scouts, Venture Scouts, Calne First Responders, Mayor Robert Merrick and all the mums, dads, spouses, partners and local residents for supporting this event.
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DECAY DETECTION ON A BEECH TREE IN CASTLE FIELD The Council’s tree surgeon has had a look at the Beech Tree. He thinks the boring beetle which caused the holes and sawdust residue is no longer present in the tree. He will continue to monitor it and also plans to x-ray the tree to establish the limits of the damage. These tests have now been carried out and recommendations are as follows: The
Resistograph tests showed some decay and confirm the X-ray readings. Although
the tree is large, it is sheltered from the winds by the buildings to
the east and a stand of pine trees to the west. It is likely that the
tree will decline further and there is no way to stop this just to reduce
the forces acting on the tree. |
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Easter Egg & Bunny Hunt 2019 Thanks to the glorious weather this year's 'Easter Egg and Bunny Hunt' was another resounding success. The number of children attending the event was up on last year, each using an amount of energy in preparation for the consumption of their prize. CARP would like to thank all the families that took part in our fundraising event. Thanks to the volunteers that helped before, and on the day, Also our grateful thanks to the following organisations and businesses for their support: Butfield Breach, Quemerford Post Office, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Mario’s Ice creams and Calne Scouts, An amazing total of £273 was raised.
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WINTER FESTIVAL 2018 Calnes Winter festival, proved very popular as usual this year and CARP's stall was very busy throughout the afternoon and evening. We are pleased to say that we raised a total of £126.20 towards our work in the park. Many thanks to all our supporters and helpers, especially Tesco and the Co-Op stores for their donations.
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Planning
permission for
the wall re-build and other works west of Chaveywell have now been granted.
Fitness trail, Gym equipment in the hay-meadow. Two more pieces of gym equipment, a cross-trainer and a leg press, have now been installed.
Carp would like to thank Calne Area Board of Wiltshire Council, Calne Town Council, Tesco “Bags of Help” and Calne Lions for their contributions towards these new additions to our fittness trail.
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RHS It's Your Neighbourhood award. We've done it again!!! CARP has been awarded Level 5 'outstanding' by the judges of the 'It's Your Neighbourhood' category of the Royal Horticultural Society's 'Britain-in-bloom' competition for the FOURTH year running! Well done everyone. Castle mound wall renovations has begun. After a long consultation and design period, the restoration of the wall around the 'castle mound' has begun. It is believed the work will take about 5-6 months to complete. it should be noted that the cyclepath will be diverted around the hay-meadow during this period. Upgraded, Fitness trail, Gym equipment in the hay-meadow. Following a successful application, CARP has received a grant of £10.999 from Virador Credits towards 5 new units of outdoor gym equipment has been installed in the hay-meadow. Sainsbury’s Store Calne provided a significant 3rd party contribution and a further donation of £250, along with some technical advice, was received from St Mary’s Sports Centre. These contributions were crucial to us securing the grant funding from Viridor. Carp would like to thank St Mary's SC and Sainsbury’s for their help with this achievement. Thanks, also for the many letters of support we have received.
CARP in the running for Sainsbury's 'Charity of the year', again! We are delighted to announce that CARP has been shortlisted as one of the 3 nominees for Sainsbury's Charity of the Year 2016/17. As such shoppers are now invited to select their preferred charity by placing a token in the voting box which is positioned near the fruit and veg aisle. The charity with the greatest number of tokens will become the Charity of the Year. Please
take this opportunity to vote for CARP so that we can once again enjoy
the benefits. Annual Easter Egg and Bunny Hunt This was held on Easter Saturday as usual. The event was attended by over 120 children and raised just over £70 which, considering the weather, was a very good turn out. Our thanks go to all those who helped on the day and also to Sainsbury's and Estate agents 'Butfield Breach'' for their contributions. Also to Calne Scouts, for keeping us supplied with hot drinks and cake.
Bristol Avon Rivers Trust (BART) have begun work to improve the flow of the River Marden within the park. With partial funding from the Environment Agency and Wessex Water, BART, and various groups of volunteers, spent two weeks from 19th-28th January using natural woody materials to construct in-stream structures known as ‘brushwood berms’ and ‘flow deflectors’ . These structures will help to improve habitat conditions by re-meandering the river within its own banks so that slow flow conditions are concentrated onto the gravels, cleaning them of silt. The longer term plans are to continue this work along the whole of the river Marden once funding becomes available.
RHS It's Your Neighbourhood award. GREAT NEWS, AGAIN!!! CARP has been awarded Level 5 'outstanding' by the judges of the 'It's Your Neighbourhood' category of the Royal Horticultural Society's 'Britain-in-bloom' competition for the THIRD year running!.
The Castle Rediscovered Project The
new 'Calne Castle Rediscovered' information board was unveiled by the
Calne Town Mayor, Cllr Howard Marshall, on the site of the old castle
in Castlefields. The ceremony was held on Friday 11th September, during
Calne Heritage Week, when members of carp and invited guests met with
others on a tour of the heritage quarter, led by historian Nick Baxter.
CARP is pleased to announced that the CALNE branch of Sainsbury's have chosen us to be their 'Local Charity of the Year for 2015! We would like to take this opportunity to thank Sainsbury's staff for nominating us and the store customers for choosing us in an in store vote. We look forward to working with the local store over the coming year.
Wall Restoration gets underway! At
last the historic wall within the Park is on track to undergo essential
repairs following funding from local company, Hills Homes Developments.
The Castle Rediscovered Project CARP
has received a grant of £3,505.80 from the Big Lottery 'Awards
for All’ fund towards our ‘Castle rediscovered project’.
Following an archaeological dig in the park in 2010 which identified a
building thought to be the long lost ‘Calne Castle’. The Castle
rediscovered project aims to identify the building footprint for future
generations. Hedge Planting in the Park Hedge
planting near the Chaveywell flats was undertaken by CARP working party
on 16th November, 2014, and continued by John Bentley School Eco Club
on the 19th November, 2014. Both days were very successful.
RHS It's Your Neighbourhood award. GREAT NEWS, AGAIN!!! CARP has been awarded Level 5 'outstanding' by the judges of the 'It's Your Neighbourhood' category of the Royal Horticultural Society's 'Britain-in-bloom' competition for the second year running!. 4star Bug Hotel in Castlefields! Bookings being taken now!! At the workparty on 17th Novenber the CARP team created a bug hotel, a habitat for insects, frogs, hedgehogs and other small creatures, in the park. We eagerly await it first residents.
RHS It's Your Neighbourhood award. GREAT NEWS!!. CARP
has been awarded Level 5 'outstanding' by the judges of the 'It's Your
Neighbourhood' category of the Royal Horticultural Society's 'Britain-in-bloom'
competition. Easter Egg & Bunny Hunt 2013 The Annual Easter egg & Bunny Hunt was held as usual this year on Easter Saturday. Despite the bitter weather, interspersed with spells of sunshine!, we think it was our biggest turnout yet. Everyone seemed to enjoy the hunt and quizzes and there were many very nice compliments as to the effort everyone had put in both with the event and the on-going work in the park. The WBCT was kept busy ferrying passengers up and down the canal and there were demonstrations of wood turning and nest making throughout the afternoon. A huge thank you to everyone involved
Jubilee Tree Project The now 'inner' circle of Pine trees located in Castle House garden, at the top of the mound, are believed to have been planted to commemorate the diamond jubilee of queen Victoria in 1897. These trees we are told are now approaching the end of their life span. It was proposed, therefore, that an outer circle of 12 trees be planted to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee this year, 2012,
Town Lock Project Work to renovate the Calne Town Lock in Castlefields Park is now complete and an official opening ceremony was held on May 5th were the Town Mayor, Glenis Ansell, Named the boat 'JUBILEE QUEEN' and launched it with champagne. A competition to name the boat was won by Abi and Francis Jordan, aged five and seven, of Calne
The improvements have included: Completion of brickwork restoration, faux lock gates at both ends of the lock structure, themed picnic/play area within the lock designed to give the appearance of a canal narrowboat in the lock, interpretation boards and picnic tables. The project is designed to establish the lock as a historic feature within the park and so provide a visible link to the Wilts & Berks Canal as part of Calne's industrial heritage. The work was carried out by Thornbury Surfacing Ltd., to plans drawn up by Nicholas Pearson Associates. A a total of £78,086 has been received towards the Town Lock Project.
For more news and pictures, [CLICK HERE] Chaveywell Spring project A grant award of £7,254 from 'The Big Lottery fund', together with £2,000 from Wiltshire council has enabled CARP to undertake and complete this project. The walls around the Chaveywell spring area have been restored and masonry artwork in the form of some stone pig’s heads, which were once part of the roof buttresses in the old Harris factory in Calne, have been incorporated. A hard surface around the water’s edge and seating has also been provided. Castle House Garden Project In November 2007 CARP was awarded a grant of £68,600 from the National lottery’s 'Big Lottery Fund' towards the restoration of Castle House Gardens, part of the Castlefields Park area. The work involved the laying of new path surfaces, new benches and picnic tables, and fencing. Other ground and tree works were carried out to make more of the gardens accessible and attractive to local people and visitors to Calne. Most of this grant has now been allocated and, on the 13th September 2008, Carp held a ‘Party in the Park’ to show what had been achieved and to thank the people of Calne for their support. For more details click here.
Paths and access improvements North Wilts District Council, the then, owners of Castlefields Park, obtained funding through the Landfill Tax Credit Scheme, to improve the drainage and surfaces to the paths and cycleway within Castle park. The path improvement work was done in conjunction with improvements in Castle house gardens allowing a continuity of surfaces throughout the park. As well as the drainage and path work in the park, fencing has been erected along the River Marden at the Station Road entrance to the park. The riverside pocket park With the help of a grant from the Living Spaces scheme CARP have completed a pocket park at the edge of the River Marden on land formally part of the gardens of Marden House. the pocket park has been fully planted and is now into it's fourth year of growth. Seating areas with artworks designed by local children and other ceramics by a local artist have been incorporated in the park.
A tree and surrounding ceramic feature has been positioned in the path near to the Town Lock. This feature has been commissioned to celebrate the 30th year of the Calne Music & Arts Festival Held in October 2008.
Wild Flower Meadow The wild flower meadow is cut twice a year in accordance with the Wildlife Trust's recommendations. . The first cut, around June, is designed to knock back thistles and vigorous grasses that may have taken hold over the winter and the autumn cut gives the meadow plants the best chance to flower and set seed The
bench seat installed on the edge of the meadow is in regular use and a
stone cairn has been erected at the entrance to the meadow. The cairn
incorporates an information panel which was designed by a student at Lackham
Agricultural College, Lacock, as part of her studies on the HND countryside
manage course.
Activities within Castle park include:
Nature trail: A series of eight brass etchings around the park. Children, or adults, can follow the arrows and collect 'rubbings' from the brasses using a crayon and some paper.
Fitness trail: A series of six exercise platforms around the park enabling a person to jog from one to another performing a different exercise on each. Wilts & Berks Canal Trust: Calne Town Lock Restoration on the brickwork at the downstream end of the lock is now complete. Volunteers from the Waterway Recovery Group have held several work parties at the site and the Melksham, Calne & Chippenham Branch of the Wilts and Berks Canal Trust have continued with the brickwork along the lock chamber since then. The next phase of the Town lock restoration will continue as funds allow. Chaveywell Wharf The Melksham, Calne and Chippenham branch of the WBCT have received a grant of £1800 from the Calne Area Board of Wiltshire Council and, together with some of their own funds, have made improvements to Wharf and surrounding area at Chaveywell. The work included raising the wharf to make it easier for people to climb aboard tripboats, a new retaining wall and improved drainage.
Interpretation Boards There
are two main interpretation boards, one situated at the entrance to the
Park in Station Road, Calne and the other along the cycleway as you enter
the Park from the direction of Chippenham, near Black Dog Halt. Bi-monthly Meetings CARP
now hold bi-monthly
Committee Meetings, usually in the Council Chamber of Calne Town Hall,
at 7.00pm on the third Thursday of each alternate month. Visitors are
welcome. Please come along and learn of CARP’s activities. If you
would like to join us, become a member and participate in the future planning
and programming of works you will be most welcome. updated 11/6/2020 |