N.B. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR PLANTING IN THE WOODS - FIND OUT MORE ON THE SPINNEY PAGE.

This page has the latest on developments in and around Canons Park. The big project of the past few years has been the Park Restoration which is now complete, and now the Friends are moving on to new projects to keep up the momentum of improvements. Below are explanations of what has changed, and what is happening now and what will change in the future. The headlines are - A New Children's Playground now open; the award of a Green Flag to Canons Park; the ongoing Spinney Project, Bulb and Tree Planting, a new café open in the Summer all week and on fine weekend days during the rest of the year, and plans for the restoration of the Ha-Ha. 

The Park Restoration Project was completed a few years ago now. See the separate page on Park Restoration to find out what was done to improve the amenities and general attractiveness of the park. Nearly everyone agrees that more people now use the park than before thanks to the changes. Police Safer Neighbourhood teams have their base in the Lodge (the house just inside the park by the Donnefield Avenue entrance). This presence should enhance the feeling of security by park visitors. Following all these improvements, the park has been awarded the prestigious Green Flag Award on at least two occasions. This is awarded by the Civic Trust on behalf of the government, and indicates that Canons Park has achieved national standards for parks and green spaces. The flag can be seen by the Whitchurch Lane entrance (see below).

The Friends are now moving on to further projects which will continue the efforts to upgrade aspects of the Park. One project which has been going for a few years involved Groundwork (West London) working under the umbrella of British Trust for Conservation Volunteers (BTCV) overseeing work to manage the Spinney area of the park. Please see the Spinney page for more details and Works Pics for photos.The Spinney is the wooded area extending from Whitchurch Lane to the boundary of the School grounds along the east side of the park. Although we have decided to review our work to see if we can be more effective in future, we are likely to be looking for local volunteers who would be willing to devote a few hours on a few days in 2012 and beyond to help in this work. The work will be designed to improve the woods in terms of biodiversity and to manage the mixture of young and old trees, clear intruding ivy, etc. No experience needed - we will show you what to do. If you would like to register your interest or to volunteer for the next date, please e-mail using the link at the top right of each page. We are also undertaking a project to improve another wooded area, close to the underground line. With the help of Harrow Council, and once again BTCV, we hope to create an interesting walk through this spinney. 

As you can see on our events page, we have held our first Litter Pick-up Day, and there will be more such days in future as unfortunately there will always be a few anti-social folk who do not care for the park as the majority do. For more details of the day go to the Events page.

Two other changes occurred within recent years, and both have proved very popular. One is the new Children's Playground - this is a major addition to the park's facilities, and now we have added a new slide for toddlers so that we can truly say that all ages of youngsters are now catered for. The slide was purchased with a donation from the Good Friends Café (see next paragraph) plus proceeds from our annual Family Fun Day. This can be found just inside the Donnefield Avenue entrance, close to the Police Safer Neighbourhood house.

The second change is the new café which began operating at the Bothy (single storey brick building not far from the walled garden) in summer 2009. It opens on some good weather weekend days in spring/autumn, and during summer all the time as long as it is fine. Do keep a look out if you want to buy tea, coffee, a cold drink, ice-cream, a cream tea, or hot or cold snacks. 
The café, which we have christened the Good Friends Café, is run under the auspices of the Friends of Canons Park, and has become a popular meeting place for families, local residents and dog walkers. The staff at the café have even dished out plasters for grazed knees, provided water bowls for dogs, given out leaflets and information about the park, and looked after the disabled toilet.

There has been ongoing planting of spring bulbs which should result in good displays in some areas of the park, planting of nearly 50 young trees around the park as part of a national campaign to plant more native species in parks and gardens, and restoration of the ha-ha (concealed fence) on the south side of the mansion has begun. For more on the last item see the separate ha-ha page.