Latest News: Members Info
Green Flag Awarded 2008/2009/ 2010
Following
the successful inspection to check if the
Country Park and Wirral Way would be suitable to apply for the prestigious
“Green Flag Award” Volunteers spent an hour or two of their time. Any equipment required
was provided
by the rangers, with your own stout walking shoes and maybe a pair
of garden gloves to assist the park rangers, refreshments provided
in the centre afterwards and we all had an informal chat and were pleased with
the result.
As you will already know, many improvement works have now been carried out with a new wider clear footpath from West Kirby right through to Gayton.
Improvement works will continue with new fences, gates, signs, etc making this unique off road path one of the most outstanding leisure features in Wirral
Even better if you can find the time do come along
to our Bi-Monthly meetings, feel free to express any suggestions, comments,
ideas on what you would like to see happening to this very special leisure
facility. Hopefully members will arrange some get together both on a formal
or informal basis to organise fund raising events thus opening up the entire
Wirral Country Park & Wirral Way to all members of the community
and various user groups.
To this end if you have any thoughts or connections to other groups, please come and see if it is of benefit to any fund raising activities we can carry out in a combined operation. The facilities at the Country Park and the Visitors Centre can be suitable for numerous events, even more so when the re-vamping and improvements take place both indoors and outdoors.
Within the park and along the Improved sections of the Wirral Way you will no doubt have seen or even sat on the dedicated benches. Please consider you don’t have to be dead to donate a bench. Talk to the country park rangers who will advise you sympathetically and understandingly about picnic tables and benches, signs, and gates, etc than can become almost a permanent reminder of the enjoyment people feel about some part of this magnificent location. As always the purpose of the Friends Group is to encourage the improvements and continued enhancements of this very first country park in Britain, to ensure that these very unique surroundings and beautiful parts of the Wirral Countryside are kept open and free to all members of the community, welcoming many thousands of visitors to enjoy a very special place, with panoramic views over the River Dee and a haven to a wide variety of Flora & Fauna, befitting a Scientific Site of Special Interest.
Wirral Country Park Visitors Centre, Station Road, Thurstaston, Wirral, CH61 0HN
Tel 0151 648 4371 or 0151 648 3384
- Telephone
- E-Mail: sandy.cameron@btinternet.com
- Wirral Country Park Visitors Centre, Tel: 648 4371 or 648 3884
- Wirral Country Park Centre, Station Road,
- Thurstaston, Wirral CH61 0HN
More News:
Main
Path snow bound in January 2010, still the hardy walkers braved the blizzard
to take in the remarkable scenery truly beautiful.
The
snow fall early in the New Year made for some special picture scenes all
over the Country Park and Wirral Way, many photographers took full
advantage to capture amazing sights, early morning saw the frantic
activities of the rabbits as they searched for food, trees with berries
were soon stripped of the bright red fruits by an amazing number of
birds.
Tree of the Month regular article produced by the park rangers to see great photographs and read interesting articles contact the rangers for a copy of their own monthly issue. Phone 648 4371
As you walk along the Wirral Way at Thurstaston, remembering that it was once the old railway, you will see four pine trees. Well, you might say a pine is a pine, but these are Corsican Pine and as the name suggests are from Corsica, Southern Italy and Sicily. Corsican Pines were introduced into this country around about 1759. Today this pine is used for pit props and for general building work and for plywood. Pine can also be tapped for its sap or resin. If you distil the sap (heat it and condense the vapour) you will get Turpentine. The resin is the sticky stuff left behind and is used on the strings of violins and other stringed instruments. Anyway, I wondered just how long these landmark trees have been there, had they been planted when the park was opened in the early seventies or are they older? Looking through old photographs of Thurstaston station I found this lovely picture, you can clearly see the trees in this photograph which is dated 1952, that’s 58 years ago! Notice the steam train in at the station waiting to continue it’s journey to Hooton, so I would estimate the trees could be as old as 100years and I bet they could tell some stories!!
Spreading The Word, Both Far and Wide
Many park visitors will already know that one of our Rangers, Matt Thomas, has a monthly slot on the B.B.C Radio Merseyside’s Andy Ball Nature Watch Programme. The show is broadcast live on Saturday mornings between 7.30am and 8.00am. Matt and three other Rangers, all from the Northwest, each take it a week in turn to talk to Andy Ball about what’s been seen and what’s happening on the relevant parks.
Plus one of the friends group also Broadcasts on Community Radio, and talks about his memories of the Wirral Way going back to the 1940s when as a child he used to stay on Dale Farm with his Aunt & Uncle, Log on to Vintage Radio web page and check out the broadcasting times.