NEXT MEMBERS’ MEETING:
Monday 17th July, 7.30pm, Union Chapel, Wellington Road, Fallowfield.
SAFER STREETS Funding/Community involvement at Station South.
The Friends of the Fallowfield Loop have now linked up with the Safer Streets Funding development worker, Anna Smith. Anna has a 7 hour a week contract (until the end of 2023) to undertake community development work in relation to The Fallowfield Loop.
Anna sums up her work: “Hi I’m Anna and I do the part-time role of Community Involvement at Station South. Every day is a little bit different in my job but it always involves people and often involves bikes – in their many shapes, forms and activities! Our proximity to the Fallowfield Loop is absolutely amazing for cycling and walking – and perfect for our beginner groups that we are teaching how to cycle. We offer rides for everybody at our newly formed cycling club at Station South – from learning to ride, to hitting up the hills and everything in between and it’s fabulous to have the FLoop to start and finish every ride. We are about to launch our bike hire on 22nd July as well as regular free bike loan sessions on the last Friday of each month. Come and cycle with us!”
Anna will be presenting an update of the work she has been doing as a guest speaker at our July meeting on Monday 17th.
STATION SOUTH
The folks at Station South have continued to develop their outside area and Ian Barker’s group’s efforts to grass over the old access path are showing signs of success. There are a good variety of events in Station South’s July calendar, which you can find at: www.stationsouth.co.uk/events/list/
STOP PRESS NEWS !
Manchester City Council has been confirmed as the buyer of the Station South building (975-977 Stockport Road) and adjacent land. It’s been a nail-biting few months since the owners of the building, Railway Paths Limited (RPL), put the building up for sale. While they’ve got a sturdy lease, the uncertainty of a new owner caused some obvious concerns. Thankfully, they’ve recently been informed that MCC has recognised the importance of Station South to Levenshulme and the wider community in Greater Manchester. With the support of the council, they have been assured that our tenancy will remain the same and their long-term tenure is protected, so that they can continue to provide a community hub in our local area.
ORCHARDS
Dick Venes reports: the orchard working group held a work morning in late May to clear the overgrown path and areas round the trees at the ‘Chervil’ orchard, a tough but satisfying job. They then moved on to cut back brambles at the Fallowfield orchard. A recent visit to all the orchards showed that most trees are bearing some fruit and a few are very heavy with apples and plums. However, the cherry trees, if they had any fruit, have been stripped almost bare by, presumably, wood pigeons. I recovered half a dozen red and yellow cherries from the Debdale orchard – they were edible but a bit tart. The trees have not suffered from human vandalism but the weight of a wood pigeon does cause damage to some branches!
An orchard survey form was completed for the Orchard Project, the national organisation that helped us install the ‘Chervil’ orchard trees and the gate to the orchard. Their recommendation was that we should ‘remove fruit in the first few years after planting so the energy can go into developing a strong root system. It feels very counterintuitive to remove fruitlets but is generally considered best for longer term tree health’. We have not done this with other orchards but will do so at Chervil, along with pruning soft fruit trees such as cherries at the other locations. While on orchards, Ian Barker has suggested we should rename the Chervil orchard – any suggestions? If you are interested in helping with orchard work please contact Dick Venes via email: richardvenes296@gmail.com (note change of address please!).
EDDIE JOHNSON’S TALK
FotFL Hon President Eddie Johnson gave an excellent illustrated talk on ‘The Fallowfield Line’ at the Union Chapel on 26th June. He covered the history of the route that is now the Fallowfield Loop walking and cycle way, with some great photographs covering both railway operations and showing how the areas along the Loop have changed. My favourite picture was one of Levenshulme station which showed a tripe works just north east of the station. The event was attended by over 60 people and their donations raised over £330 for Eddie’s chosen charity, the Macmillan Wellbeing Centre at Trafford General Hospital.
TWENTY YEARS AGO
A look back through the archives shows the Hon Secretary’s (then Costel Harnasz) report for the year 2002 to 2003. A significant highlight was the tarmacking of the route through Levenshulme station and beyond eastwards, which was celebrated with a pedalling picnic, set off by the Lord Mayor of Manchester and attended by six other Councillors. We also organised a health walk and several rides along the Loop and adjacent routes, plus two big clean ups and a ‘bramble bash’. We had a stall at the Manchester Show publicising Sustrans and FotFL.
A significant adverse event was the closing off of the original access at St Werburgh’s Road by the owner of a ‘ransom strip’ of land at this location. Despite the best efforts of the ‘Fallowfield Loop fairy’ to reopen this path several times and our own lobbying efforts, Sustrans were eventually forced into modifying the route to its current formation, although this did not happen for a couple of years – until then, the Chorlton end connection was at Chelsfield Grove. At the July 2003 AGM Rob Trueblood, driving force for the Loop construction and founder member of FotFL, stood down as Chair, without anyone else taking on the role. Sadly Rob is no longer with us, along with at least 6 of the 22 members attending that meeting.
LECTERNS
Hopefully some members will have noticed the newly pristine polycarbonate coverings of the maps at the Quadrants and the Sherwood Street entrance. FotFL have funded the purchase of new coverings so that the heavily graffitied ones can be removed and cleaned up or discarded if too badly damaged. The maps underneath are still in very good condition, although the lack of fading may be due as much to the covering of graffiti paint as the u/v resistance of polycarbonate. We intend to continue this refurbishment with those lecterns which do not get too much painting or fly postering.
JULY NATURE WALK
This month we have Dave Higginson-Tranter aka FungalPunk Dave leading our walk starting at The Quadrants on Sunday 23rd July at 10.30 am. In Dave’s own words this will be a: NOSEY NATURE POOTLE – a general walk looking to list 100 species in a couple of hours and to highlight the beauty of nature and how important it is to record what you see.
Friends of the Fallowfield Loop 