The heron sculpture in late afternoon sun
The Northenden Riverside Park in Manchester is sited on the banks of the River Mersey between Palatine Road Bridge and the Tatton Arms Bridge.
The Friends Group aims to support a wider use of the site and to enhance the Park for the benefit of the whole community by being involved in the improvement of recreational, educational and environmental facilities.
Join us to find out more about what we are doing and so that your wishes influence the Park.
Come and join the Friends Group at our AGM. We will choose a new committee and talk about our hopes for future developments and events in the Park. Dave Bishop, from the Friends of Chorlton Meadows, will talk to us about plants which grow on the river banks - more details will be added closer to the date!
I have decided (3/5/2012) to start a blog for the Friends Group in order that we can keep you infomed with up to date news and so that you can leave comments. Although there is not much there yet, just a brief report on the last year, I hope that it develops to become useful and interesting - I intend to post something new on it every week or so. There is also a link to it in the righthand margin!
The Friends Group were given a grant by the council last autumn (2011) for some additions to the play area. A small slide was installed on the group of large clambering boulders for small children! the grant will also be used for an addition to the train, and we are working on getting the missing (damaged) hammock replaced.
The arranged boulders which now have a slide and the new engine and a driver!
Gradually we will, with the support of the council and all the community, continue to improve our park!
With the encouragement and support of Alison Davenport, who was then the South Parks development officer based in Wythenshawe Park, we initiated a small oral history project in which we interviewed people about their memories of the role of the river area in their lives.
We documented some of our work on a series of posters which have been shown at local events and the Manchester Histories Festival 2012 as well as creating and performing a short play. On our Oral History page you can see the posters, the script of the play as well as a video of the performance.
A year ago the Northenden Civic Society was given a small council grant to create a map showing walking and cycling routes of Northenden and its surrounding area. Members of the Civic Society have had a copy each and other copies have been sold at their meetings and other events.
The map links in well with the Mersey Valley maps, see below, and help to remind us all of how much there is to admire and to appreciate in our locality, starting, of course, with the Riverside Park!
The Mersey Valley Warden Service, whose site is well worth a visit anyway, produced a while ago some walking maps, which are available to download as pdfs, showing several well known and popular areas in the area. These include Stenner Woods and Millgate area near Fletcher Moss in Didsbury, and Chorlton Water Park and Kenworthy Woods, Both of which are very close to the Riverside Park and very popular walks from Northenden. Slightly further downstream they also have maps of Sale Water park and Chorlton Ees.
The Ramblers, on their Get Walking site, have produced 5 pages with details of walks around Manchester, many of which are near Northenden. One describes a walk to Fletcher Moss fromthe Park via a wonderfully circuitous route(!), starting off via Kenworthy Lane Woods before crossing the Mersey and returning on the right bank before leaving the river and using some of the less well known public footpaths, returning to the banks an reaching Stenner Woods. A second goes from Peel Hall Park to the Riverside Park following what are described as, "public parks, woodlands and tree and grass-lined residential roads from an area of mid 1940?s social housing to the original 19th century village centre of Northenden."