Harrogate's Award Winning Park
VALLEY GARDENS—HARROGATE'S AWARD-WINNING PARK
FOVG NEWS
VALLEY GARDENS WINS PLATINUM IN 2024 YORKSHIRE IN BLOOM COMPETITION.
Thanks to the amazing work of the North Yorkshire professional gardeners, helped by Friends of Valley Gardens volunteer gardeners, Valley Gardens won the top award of Platinum in the Yorkshire in Bloom Competition for 2024. Harrogate was awarded Gold in the Small City class. Harrogate in Bloom and Harrogate Business Improvement District (BID) have been awarded a joint Discretionary Award for the Best Commercial Entry Supporting Tourism.
Thanks must also go to Harrogate in Bloom, the umbrella organisation coordinating the competition entries.
REPORT TO MEMBERS FROM THE TRUSTEES, SEPT 2024
As mentioned at our AGM, North Yorkshire Council are planning a new Rose Garden in Valley Gardens to be situated just below the Sun Colonnade. The centre of the garden is to feature a gazebo. As this will be an important addition to Valley Gardens, Friends of Valley Gardens have agreed to finance this structure. We have just been contacted by Kirsty Stewart, Parks and Grounds Area Manager (West), to tell us that the structure is about to be galvanised and the installation is planned for the next 3 weeks. The beds will then be planned and roses planted in November or December.
To protect the future of the Old Magnesia Well Pump Room, the building is in need of some maintenance. Amongst other things, the interior paint is peeling and the exterior needs some attention. We have forwarded a list of repairs to Kirsty Stewart.
The Friends have just completed two projects, the popular World Tree Trail and, thanks to the Harrogate Civic Society and a legacy donation from the estate of Mike Hine, the new lights on the main entrance pillars.
We are currently recruiting volunteer gardeners to help in Valley Gardens so we have a jazzy new poster (see below). We would love to have you join us.
Kind regards
Liz, Andrew, Peter and Anne
Trustees
Friends of Valley Gardens
PAUL COOK IS THE NEW PRESIDENT OF FRIENDS OF VALLEY GARDENS
The Trustees are happy to announce that Paul Cook, the curator of RHS Harlow Carr, has kindly agreed to be our new President. Learn more about Paul here.
Paul Cook with Martin Fish, our former President
NEW LIGHTS INSTALLED AT THE MAIN ENTRANCE TO VALLEY GARDENS
Electricians from Robinson Lighting have installed traditionally designed, brighter, low-energy LED lights on the main entrance pillars to Valley Gardens. The project was financed thanks to a bequest in the will of Mike Hine of the Harrogate Civic Society and Friends of Valley Gardens.
FOVG AGM
The FOVG 2024 AGM was held on Wednesday, 6th March at St Peter’s Church, Harrogate. The Agenda, Reports and Accounts for the year ended 31st December 2023 may be viewed at this link. Click here for the Minutes of the meeting.
VALLEY GARDENS WORLD TREE GUIDE NOW AVAILABLE
Friends of Valley Gardens have produced a World Tree Trail Guide for children and adults detailing some of the unusual and fascinating trees in Valley Gardens. Copies are available free at the Harrogate Tourist Information Centre. For your personal digital copy of the Guide, with internal links, click here. This copy can also be printed. For a printable map only, click here.
FOVG have also commissioned a professional artist (Evelyn Sinclair) who has designed the attractive FOVG Valley Gardens information leaflet and map, to produce a design for the World Tree Trail Information Board. This is located at the beginning of the trail (between Trees 1 & 2) and was installed just before Easter 2024. Following very positive feedback on the new map, we have produced Version 2 (V2) copies of the Tree Trail publications now delivered by the links above.
For compatibility with the existing original version (V1) of the printed booklet in circulation, it is still available here.
Note: some Android devices are not able to download the guide. If this impacts you, please click here.
VALLEY DRIVE PARKING FINES
Motorists are warned that Valley Drive, which is a popular parking place for visitors to Valley Gardens, generates twice as many parking fines as any other street in Harrogate. Parking on either side of the street is free with a parking disk but the time limits are not the same. The park side of the street has a time limit of 3 hours, but, across the road on the housing side, the limit is just one hour.
NEW ZEALAND GARDEN RESTORATION
The New Zealand Garden was created in 1953 to honour the 23 New Zealand aircrew buried in Stonefall Military Cemetery with plants donated by the City of Wellington. Since May 1978, the connection between Harrogate and Wellington has formalized as a "sister city" relationship.
In 2010 Tony Sissons led a team to restore the garden thanks to a bequest from Kenneth Broadwith. The Maori Pou Whenua, donated by the City of Wellington, and three New Zealand statues carved from leylandii stumps were created.
By 2023 the statues needed to be replaced. Thanks to a generous legacy donation from the late Alan Rollinson and North Yorkshire Council, Harrogate International Partnerships commissioned the Yorkshire sculptor Jennifer Taplow to create the Yorkshire Stone Pikorua sculpture, a symbol from New Zealand that represents an eternal bond between people and cultures.
The City of Wellington has donated a bench and Sue Wood and the Valley Gardens Professional Gardeners have restored the garden with donations from the family of the late Tony Sissons.
A GUIDE TO THE TREES OF VALLEY GARDENS
Jane Blayney and Simon Hill have published a guidebook to the Trees of Valley Gardens. The special character of Harrogate's 17-acre park is provided by its vast variety of trees. Some are native to the British Isles while others are examples from more exotic places. Many of the trees are now well over 100 years old and this wonderful new guide describing thirty different species will help more of us to explore these trees with greater insight. The Guidebook is available at £7.50 from Waterstones, Harrogate, North Yorkshire Library and Archive, Northallerton, and Moorland Nurseries, Forest Road, Knaresborough or by post from Jane.Blayney23@gmail.com for £10.00 to include P&P. A special price is available for 10 copies or above.
SOUVENIR GUIDE TO VALLEY GARDENS
A Souvenir Guide to Valley Gardens, Harrogate has been published by Anne Smith and Jane Blayney, two ex-chairmen of the Friends of Valley Gardens (FOVG). As there is no official book about the gardens, they felt that a guide, which gives a brief history of the gardens along with a selection of photographs, would be of great benefit to visitors and local people alike. Between them they have held the post of chairman for 29 years. Both have great knowledge of the gardens and have overseen the restoration of the Sun Pavilion, the Old Magnesia Well Pump Room, the King Edward VII Memorial Gate and Rose Beds, and the Japanese Garden.
The guide is a wonderful souvenir and would make an ideal present. It can be purchased from the Tourist Information Office and Waterstones in Harrogate. The guide is also available from www.valleygardensharrogate.org for £5.00.+ £2.00 p&p.
FOVG NEWSLETTER AND GARDEN WATCH
To keep everyone up to date on the happenings in Valley Gardens, Ann Beeby has published a new edition of the "FOVG Newsletter". Click on the link below:
For earlier editions of the FOVG Newsletter click on these links:
Newsletter 4 - April 2021
Newsletter 3 - Nov 2019
Newsletter 2 - June 2019
Newsletter 1 - Jan 2019
Click below to view past editions of the "Garden Watch" that was published during the pandemic.
Dec 2021, Jan 2021, Nov 2020, Sep 2020, Aug 2020, 13 Jul 2020, 8 June 2020, 1 Jun 2020, 25 May 2020, 18 May 2020, 11 May 2020, 4 May 2020, 27 Apr 2020, 20 Apr 2020, 13 Apr 2020, 6 Apr 2020, 30 Mar 2020, 23 Mar 2020
INFORMATION FOR DOG OWNERS
Following complaints by visitors about uncontrolled dogs, North Yorkshire Council have erected signs in the Valley Gardens instructing dog owners to keep their dogs on leads. The signs also remind owners to clean up after their pets.
ANTI-SOCIAL BEHAVIOR IN VALLEY GARDENS
The damage to sculptures in the New Zealand Garden has been widely reported in the local press and our own Garden Watch. This was just one of the acts of Anti-social behavior that we have witnessed in the Valley Gardens. The Sun Colonnade seems to be a favorite canvas for Harrogate’s budding Banksy’s. All those white walls seem to be irresistible, but they have also attacked the Games Pavilion in the Children’s Playground. The Friends of Valley Gardens have not escaped. Two of the beautiful lanterns in the newly restored Japanese Garden have been damaged and needed urgent remedial attention.
Graffiti is spotted and reported quickly by North Yorkshire Council Gardeners. Sometimes it can be removed with solvents or a team overpaints the area often before many visitors have noticed the damage. All this adds pointless work and extra expense for North Yorkshire Council.
Other vandalism can cause permanent damage to the park, leading to the removal of flora and historic features which cannot be repaired.
See it - Report it
Who do you report anti-social behavior to? Safer Harrogate Community Safety Group have published an online guide to the different types of anti-social behavior and advice about which authority you should contact. To learn more about anti-social behaviour click on the image below. You can also go to the NYC Safer Harrogate web site here.
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