Month: April 2016

Gates Award Ceremony

Civic Award for Pittville Gates

Gates Award Ceremony

The project to refurbish Pittville Gates has earned a 2016 Civic Award for the Restoration of an Existing Structure.

The project team received the award at a ceremony at the Town Hall on 20 April. As well as Friends of Pittville (Chris Archibald, Fiona Clarke, Judie Hodsdon and  Judy Langhorn), the award recognised the partnership with Cheltenham Borough Council (the owners of the Gates), represented by Garrie Dowling; the architect/project manager RRA, represented by Mark Powles; and the contractors AMPM247, represented by Tim Jeynes and Dan Heaton.

The big decision we now need to make is where to affix the plaque near the Gates!

Pirate ship

Naming the play area boat

Pirate ship

We invited Friends of Pittville to suggest names for the boat (actually a wreck) in the sandpit in the new play area. The final choice was The Jolly Joe – appropriately piratical with a reference to Joseph Pitt. There is no prize, but the person who made the winning suggestion (who prefers to remain anonymous) will have the pleasure of seeing their name on the boat in days to come.

Pittville Pump Room - evening

Lighting a beacon for the Queen’s 90th birthday

Pittville Pump Room - eveningDuring the evening of Thursday, 21st April, Cheltenham will be joining over a thousand other towns, villages and communities in lighting beacons to celebrate the 90th birthday of Her Majesty The Queen.

The Prince of Wales will invite Her Majesty The Queen to light the principal Beacon at Windsor Castle. This will be followed by the lighting of other beacons at Windsor, followed by the lighting of beacons at the top of the four highest peaks in the UK.

The Mayor of Cheltenham, Councillor Duncan Smith, will lead the lighting of Cheltenham’s beacon for the north of the town at Pittville Pump Room at 8.30pm, preceded by a short ceremony at 8.20pm.

The evening is being organised by the Cheltenham Trust, who are inviting members of the public to attend the event  and join them in celebrating this historic occasion in the beautiful surroundings of Pittville Pump Room and Pittville Park.

 The Pump Room bar will be open during the event and light refreshments will be available.

Pittville Park Aviary

Pittville park aviaries to be renovated thanks to GET grant

Pittville Park AviaryThanks to a grant from the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust, the aviaries in Pittville Park are being refurbished. The work will include replacing all the mesh, repairing and repainting the metal work, repairing all the timber structures, improving the facilities for the animals and making the aviaries more educational and interactive for members of the public.

This is part of the Pittville Play Area project to create an exceptional play area for children of all ages and abilities to enjoy. Friends of Pittville have been working to raise the funds to support the project and were successful in obtaining a grant of £25,000 from the Gloucestershire Environmental Trust to renovate the aviaries. GET provides grants from funds generated by the Landfill Communities Fund for the benefit of Gloucestershire, its people and its environment.

The present aviaries were established in 1936, but have not been substantially repaired since then. They are a much-loved feature of the park, so an important part of the play area project was to renovate them so they can provide enjoyment for many years to come. The animals have been temporarily rehomed and the work, which will take approximately ten weeks, is about to start.

GET was also a generous donor for the Pittville Gates Restoration Project.

 

 

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