FRIENDS OF PRIORY PARK, WARWICK
OPEN MEETING 17th JUNE 2025
Attendees
Dave Skinner (Chair), Andy Stewart (Secretary), Trevor Day (Treasurer), Diane James, Lesley Hall, Peter Clemons, Paul Gerrard, Becca Woodbine, John Garrett, Amanda Hazelgrove, Robin Christopherson, Judith Christopherson, Richard Bainbridge, Johnathan Branson, Ewan Davies, Jo Birkbeck, Nic Ruch, John Holland
Apologies
Lucie Cox, Gayle Harris, Helen Reid Jackson, Mo Hooper
Welcomes
Dave welcomed everyone to the meeting and thanked them for attending. He also noted our thanks to Ben, the new landlord of The Wild Boar, for allowing FOPP to continue using the function room for our meetings.
Chair’s Report
Dave started by saying that not much had changed since our previous meeting (the 2025 AGM), with the exception being the completion of the excellent mural around the railway bridge entrance to Priory Park. The beautiful mural has various images referencing aspects of the park and also covers the themes of past, present and future as well as dusk, dawn, afternoon and night. Dave mentioned the support from Network Rail for this project as well as Tim Robottom from Brink Contemporary Arts who created the mural. Dave also highlighted the mural of a kingfisher which Tim had previously created near to the current Packmores Community Centre. As the location of this mural is also the location of what will hopefully be the new Priory Pools Community Centre, it is intended to try and incorporate this mural in some way into the new Community Centre.
Dave then mentioned the QR code panels that Johnathan had organised the installation of at various entrances to the park. When scanned, the QR code redirects to the FOPP website. As agreed in our previous meeting, Dave has obtained web usage statistics to see whether the installation of signs increased traffic to the website. Although not conclusive, there was an increase in access to the website around the time that QR code panels were installed. Similarly there was another increase around the time of last year’s bat walk.
Dave then provided a summary of the report that he received from Deb Merrick from the Warwick District Council (WDC) Green Spaces team. It is intended that the beech tree that is still standing but that there are concerns about will be reduced to a 6 metre snag providing habitat. To proceed with this, Deb will need to organise getting various equipment into the park and it is intended that the clear up of the fallen beech will occur at the same time as this work. Prior to the work starting, Deb will need to liaise with Historic England. The work will need dry ground conditions to prevent any ground damage, but it is hoped that this work will be able to be completed around September time. It is likely that some of the timber from this work will be used to block off some of the smaller desire lines that run across the site close to these trees. A desire line is an informal path that people create by walking along the most convenient or preferred route, rather than following an actual path. Blocking some of the desire lines should encourage people to keep to the main paths and discourage cycling from eroding new areas. The main cut that runs down the bank will be kept and what should be the mown paths will be re-opened.
The next phase of tree and woodland improvements has been planned. This will occur in a small area in and around the area where the work detailed above will be completed, but will also include an area a bit further up towards the Record Office. This work will be mainly some coppicing and crown lifting and it is hoped that this will be completed alongside the work on the beeches or possibly later on into the winter as it is mostly lighter work.
Deb also commented that she was glad to hear that the wildflower meadow is doing well. She also referenced a comment Dave had made about there being very few foxgloves visible in the park with her reply being that introducing more foxgloves and some other flowering species into the park would be great. Planting out container grown plants and bulbs would be tricky as permission would be required from Historic England, but seeding would be fine as that would just entail breaking up the surface. She thought that the required seeds could be sourced through the Biodiversity Action Plan and wondered whether FOPP would be able to arrange a work party to complete the seeding.
Dave had mentioned to Deb about the saplings in the long grass by St. John’s Brook, as he had wondered whether we should look at keeping a few of these. Deb’s reply about these self-sets was that one of the Green Spaces team aims is to have some areas in the district that are allowed to rewild naturally. If it is agreed that the area where the self-sets are located is suitable, then that area can be designated as an area of no maintenance. Dave said to the meeting that he had seen more jays in the park than in previous years and they may be the cause of the saplings, as like squirrels, jays have a tendency to bury seeds and nuts.
Deb had also asked Dave to let her know some good times to meet and have a walk round the park.
Dave said that the support strap on the recently planted oak sapling may need loosening. Lesley said that she thought the strap could be removed completely but that the post should be left in case support is required in the future. Dave agreed to remove the strap.
Dave then mentioned the retirement of Jon Holmes. Jon had 50 years of service to the district’s parks and open spaces with his final role being that of Green Spaces Development Officer and it was in this role that FOPP had many, mainly successful, engagements with Jon.
It was agreed that we should organise a working party for the seed sowing. Lesley said that the issue with progressing this is that due to the excessively dry spring, a substantial amount of rain will be required before the sowing goes ahead. As most foxgloves are biennials, the sowing would be needed before the autumn so that the first year’s growth could be established.
Lesley mentioned the cutting of the Cubbington Pear that she had been given to plant in the park. When the Cubbington Pear was felled due to it being on the route of HS2, quite a few cuttings of it were taken. Jon Holmes had previously agreed that the cutting could be planted in the park. At the time the cutting was too small to be planted out and is currently safely located at Guy’s Cliffe house walled garden.
Ewan said that there are oak saplings that were growing in the long grass near the allotments in the Priory Pools area and that they may get cut back if the grass is cut. When the new Community Centre is built, there will be some landscaping around the area where the centre will be located and it might be possible to include some of the saplings into this landscaping work.
Diane asked whether there is a plan to replace any of the trees that have fallen. Dave replied that he thought there was a replacement scheme but that he wasn’t sure. Johnathan said that he thought some of the trees in the park had come from the council nursery that used to be located close to St. Nicholas’ church and that when this nursery was closed the left over trees were relocated to the park. It was also mentioned about the replacement AMIKARO trees that were planted a while ago. The suggestion of an orchard in the towards the Coventry Road entrance to the park was mentioned, although it may be that this area is too damp.
Diane also said that she thought that the bluebells had been sparse this year and this may be due to either people walking on them or environmental reasons. Dave said that he had cleared some of the brambles from around the Empress tree. Lesley mentioned the work to clear the ground around the small leaf limes and that only Lucie had assisted with this work.
Johnathan said that if we did need volunteers for any work in the park then he could probably organise this from local companies who were keen to increase their community engagement, with the resulting publicity. If this were to be progressed, any volunteer teams would be working under FOPP’s supervision and insurance.
Dave then said that he had paid for the renewal of the groups insurance and now needs to get the funds for this from our town council grant.
Treasurer’s Report
Trevor said that the only recent payment from the group’s bank account was a small payment to Dianne Loftus for the domain name renewal costs for FOPPs website. This leaves in excess of £200 in the bank account and therefore he would reimburse Dave for the insurance renewal charge prior to Dave requesting this from the town council.
Dave mentioned about the legacy that FOPP had been left from the estate of Andrew Philip Griffin. Probate for this is still progressing and Dave is unaware of the size of this legacy
Q. & A. Session
Lesley said there were 25 species in flower in the wildflower meadow at the time of her last survey. She also mentioned she didn’t think the meadow was growing as well as last year and this was possibly due to the poor spring that we have had this year. She also said that the area occupied by the meadow is getting larger as less mowing has occurred around the boundaries and that lots of insects were visible in the meadow. Lesley said that although yellow rattle had previously been added to the meadow, she didn’t recommend adding any further seeds and that nothing needs to be done to the meadow until the autumn when the Green Spaces team should cut the area. It is possible that a small working party will be required to rake the cuttings from the area as occurred last year. Lesley agreed to send Dave her list of species in flower and Dave will organise uploading this to the website and Facebook page. Dave said that occasionally people were still completing park usage surveys – the survey page is accessible from the website. A popular suggestion from the surveys is for more areas of wildflower meadow in the park
Paul then gave a short presentation covering his study of grasses in the meadow. Eight different grasses have been identified with these being foxtail, crested dogstail, Timothy grass, sweet vernal grass, annual meadow grass, cocksfoot, Yorkshire fog and probably Agrostis. Paul had also prepared an informative, illustrated handout, copies of which were distributed to attendees. Paul said that it was noticeable that he had not identified perennial rye in the meadow and that this was surprising as this is a very common grass. He thought that this was possibly due to the low fertility of the meadow area. He also explained how grasses flower depending on the length of day and if a species of grass is sown somewhere that doesn’t have the required length of day, then the grass will not flower.
Dave mentioned the photos of insects in the meadow area that a friend of Lesley’s had taken and that he would eventually get these uploaded to the website. Lesley said she would ask her friend if she was willing to repeat the photography exercise. It was also highlighted that Warwick has been awarded the accolade of being a Bee Friendly Town. This award recognizes the work of the community group Bee Friendly Warwick. Diane mentioned the recent ‘Bee Wild – Insects Matter’ event held by Hill Close Gardens and suggested that FOPP may like to have a stall at any similar future events.
The bat walk that was held in 2024 was very successful. Dave suggested holding another bat walk this year, possibly in September and that he would contact Tricia Scott from the Warwickshire Bat Group to see if this would be possible.
Robin queried whether any of wood chips which would be produced from the planned work in the park could be used to improve the state of the path at the lower end of the park. Dave said he thought that the wood chips would possibly disappear, especially when the path was very muddy but that he would raise this suggestion with Deb Merrick when he meets with her. If it was thought that wood chips would be of use to improve the path, then the idverde team (WDC Green Spaces team contractors) have a large amount of wood chips at their depot. Dave also said improvements to the path were still on WDC’s list of improvements. It was noted tarmac shouldn’t be considered as a possibility for the path as that would likely lead to the path being used as a race track by cyclists and possibly motor cyclists or people riding electric scooters. It was suggested it would be worthwhile to try and get any improvements to the path co-ordinated with the build of the new Community Centre as it is likely that the centre would increase footfall along the path.
John G asked whether the group had made any progress with the accessibility survey that had been discussed previously. Dave answered that there hasn’t and Johnathan said that he would look at progressing this and initially would look to involve John G and / or Amanda. Lucie had planned to organise a working party to make accessibility improvements such as widening paths where growth was encroaching on them but she has been unable to progress this. Access routes into the park were mentioned. Previously, when King’s High School was still located in the town centre, there were suggestions the school would fund renovations of some of the access routes on the Priory Road side of the park as these were used as shortcuts by pupils of the school. However as school has since relocated, they are no longer interested in progressing these improvements. Amanda said that a rail on the steep path leading down towards the entrance of the Record Office would improve the accessibility of that path. Ewan suggested closing this entrance completely meaning the only entrance in that area of the park would be the path at the side of the Medical Centre. Trevor said that he thought he had seen information suggesting WDC only recognized two entrances to the park. However as there used to be an information board at one of the Priory Road entrances, this may not be the case.
Trevor asked whether any of the wood from the work on the beech trees could be used for further tree carvings. The previous carvings were organised by ARC CIC with them obtaining the funding for this work. It was queried where the funding from any further carvings could come from and Dave noted that some of the funding for the previous carving work had come from Councillor John Holland’s councillors fund.
John H mentioned cycle calming measures on Priory Pools Path and said that although funding was available for this it hadn’t been progressed. It was also queried whether there were going to be improvements to the lighting in the tunnel under the railway. Although the previous lights had been replaced with energy efficient LED lights they aren’t very bright. John H said that only Network Rail were allowed to perform any work in the tunnel and he was unsure whether there was any funding to improve the lighting in the tunnel.
Johnathan said he was aware that there was funding available to improve the signage in the park and any new signage would include information about bio-diversity in the park. Johnathan also mentioned the sensory trail that had been installed in Christchurch gardens in Leamington Spa. This trail has now been removed and Johnathan wondered whether it could be relocated in the Priory Pools area. He also said that Warwick School were keen to produce some art and heritage trails and either Priory Park or Priory Pools would be a good location for these.
Diane mentioned a forthcoming event organised by Warwickshire Gardens Trust. This event is called ‘Garden Detectives’ and is aimed at people who are curious to learn about how to look at gardens in greater detail. The event will be held in The Peoples Park in Banbury, has a provisional date of November 18th 2025 and will cost £15 (including a sandwich lunch) to attend. Once the date has been finalized we will upload the details to the FOPP website.
Encroachment by brambles on some paths and other areas of the park was mentioned. Ewan highlighted that if FOPP were looking to organise a working party to deal with this, then the work would need to be organised formally rather than occurring on an ad-hoc basis.
A.O.B
The time and date of the next Open Meeting was agreed as 7pm on Tuesday 9th September 2025 with the location being as usual the Wild Boar, Lakin Road. Johnathan offered congratulations to Dave for his year as Mayor of Warwick. Congratulations were also offered to John following his recent re-election as County Councillor.
Dave again thanked everyone for their attendance and then closed the meeting.