Tennis in the Park.

Tennis in the Park has resumed.

All the contact details are below. (Click on images to enlarge.)

July Roundup

Over 15,000 views on this Blog since we first started

Thank You all for stopping by.

July has been a very quiet time around the park so we don't have much news this month.

Towards the end of the school term we were delighted to have the local junior schools bring their pupils over for a morning and afternoon session of games and other activities. Everybody enjoyed themselves and it was great to see the park in full use.
Who needs Oakwood park when we have Coed Bach!

Also we are launching a photo competition and the first prize is your image will feature in next years cards/calendars we are producing and your image will be the centre point of a local exhibition promoting the park.

Click on image to enlarge.

Park Budgets

At our last meeting on 26/7/15 at Pontarddulais Cricket Club park's development manager Richard Davies took some time out of his busy day to pop along and give us an update on the situation with regards to Swansea Parks budgets.

As we know it is tough times for all Council run departments and budgets are being slashed due to lack of funding from central goverment. This also effects our parks in the area and they no longer have the manpower they need to attend to everything in the park.

Richard has set up a Friends of Swansea Park's forum on Facebook and they meet occasionally in Swansea to discuss and share ideas.

This hopefully will lead to all volunteer groups being able to share ideas and hopefully share machinery (and volunteers) to attend to our parks.

It is more important than ever to get more volunteers on board to save our open spaces.

If you would like to join us the contact email is at the top of the screen and you can contact us via Facebook or Twitter.

As you can see from the aerial map below over the last five years FOCBP have been able to make a big difference in the park all through volunteer efforts.

Changes Made

New Tennis Courts

Seasonal Pond

Extended hard standing area by the Rugby pitch

Skateboard Ramps

Extending the BMX track with support from local schools

Continual planting and clearence work around the park

Safer Swansea schemes implemented to improve park safety

Extra bins and seating 

You too can also be a part of something great.

Click on map to enlarge image taken from Google Maps

Dog Poo

Due to a minority of people not picking up after their dogs we have been forced into the difficult decision of calling in the Dog Wardens.

People are allowing their pets to foul our pathways and volunteers (many of who are dog owners themselves) have found themselves picking up other peoples mess or worse still stepping in it.

We have to say the majority of people follow the rules but sadly one or two have even told us. 'It's ok as we are in a woodland area'

And one little boy told an irresponsible owner 'But I play in here!!!!!' Well done that little man.

Also FOCBP members are always watching and are willing to lend a bag if the owner mat have run out. (it happens)

Volunteers

There has not been much activity this month due to the Summer wildlife settling into the park but we have been out litter picking and a small bit of clearence work has been carried out.

Wildflowers

As you can see we have had a bumper crop of wildflowers growing by the Coed Bach entrance this year and if you stop to study the flowers you will notice the Bees and other insect life going about it's business of pollentaing the flowers.

Can we please ask people not to pick any of these flowers as they are given by the council to the people of Pontarddulais and they are there to be enjoyed and not damaged.

Also in the park we have a few fruit trees. These are beginning to bear the first signs of any sort of fruit growing on them.
Unfortunately people have already started picking at them and the fruit is not yet ready to be picked.
Can we please ask you not to pick anything off the trees until we give official notice, as the trees are currently getting damaged.
Warning notices will be placed around the park until further notice. And we will make a public announcement when things are ready.

Tennis coaching has restarted in the park. Please ring the number on the banner if you want to book a session.
All sessions must be booked through the Swansea Tennis Centre.

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Links are at the top of the screen.

June Roundup

The beginning of the month saw an incident in the park where youths were using a scrambling bike in the area. They then decided to use the football pitch as a scrambling course, but they were spotted by members of the Safer Swansea volunteers and after a short search by thr police and some great detective work by members of the public in the town the youths were identified and given an official warning about off roading in illegal places.
Just remember the park is always being watched!
We at FOCBP thank everybody that took time to phone the 101 non emergency number.

Sports and Activities

This month was Carnival month and things kicked off in the park with the inter school sports evening over the park.

This year the pupils of Ysgol Gymraeg Bryniago took the top honours.

Well done to everybody that took park and we hope you had fun.

Swansea CC also installed a new swing in the Playarea and this has proved to be very popular with everyone (including adults :-)

As usual a big THANK YOU to all as Swansea Council for all your work and effort in installing this for us.

And this year the pre carnival funrun returned to the park this was another well attended event for the community.

And a Basketball hoop was installed near the far end of the football pitch by the roundabout in the road.

Hopefully this will provide anyone with a ball a good challenge to pop a hoop.

Winners of the inter school sport Bryniago.

Our new swing.

Basket Ball hoop.

Some of the Pontarddulais Scouts (4th Lliw Valley) ready for the funrun.





4th Lliw Valley Scouts

4th Lliw Valley Scouts clearing the park before Sports day.

After carnival day (very wet)

The 4th Lliw Valley Scouts have been very busy in the park this month helping to clear the park of any rubbish before and after the Carnival.

Again thank you guys and girls.

You can find out more about them below.

http://4thpontarddulais.scoutsites.org.uk/

Volunteers

Volunteers have aso been active in the park picking up other peoples rubbish.

It is not up to us to clear up after you it is your responsibility.

Please Bin It!

Dog poo bags are no longer being distributed by the council due to cutbacks. We are looking into an alternative way of having bags in the dispenser in the park.

So we ask for you to bring your own with you (they cost a few pence from Tesco or other places.)

FOCBP and other park users have noticed that some people are refusing to pick up their dog's mess and we want to avoid having to call in dog wardens to deal with such people.

The majority of people do clear up but sadly it is a minority that just don't bother and give everybody a bad name.

Carnival Day

After our exploits on the float last year we returned to our traditional stall on the Carnival field.

On hand were volunteers armed with clipboards talking to the public and finding out more about facilities in the park and we have had a lot of positive feedback from this event.

Also Gaynor and Tarra spent several hours facepainting to raise funds for the FOCBP group, again this was very popular with everybody.

Thank's to everybody that volunteered their time and gave us feedback.

Wildlife

As we are in the summer months you may have noticed the grass is a little long and overgrown in some areas.

This is simply to support the summer wildlife that uses the park woodland areas, and to be able to provide habitats for any breeding or nesting species.

Clearing programmes will again resume in the winter months for next year.

Also by the Coed Bach entrance we have a display of Wildflowers growing.

This year is a bumper crop so pop over for a look.

Wildflowers.

Other Events.

The Bowls club that use the park will be running free taster sessions throughout the summer. So if you fancy a go feel free to pop over to the bowling green by the Gwynfryn rd entrance.

Just bring flat bottom trainers or shoes.

The sessions will start at 10am.

As usual Thank You to everybody that has contributed images to our Facebook page and Twitter site.

We hope to see more from you soon.

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and also on Twitter

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May Roundup

It has been a quiet month over the park.
But that does not mean that there is nothing happening or going on.

Bluebells

This years bluebells were a fantastic crop due in part to the clearence work our volunteers had done. For the first time in quite a few years we had been able to clear areas of the woodland that had not seen much attention for a little while and the Bluebells were able to start growing again.

This was noticable along the pathways.

And of course the fragrence from them was rather plesent to say the least. Hopefully the growth will be better again next year and we look forward to another wonderful display again next year.

Wildlife

Of course the wildlife really gave us a lot to be excited about this May as during a morning dog walk one of our volunteers spotted a duck on the pond with several ducklings!!!!!!

This got everybody into Elmer Fudd mode (and went looking for them) and they became little celebrities around the park with everybody trying to catch a glimpse of them.

A few people have commented that they have not been seen that often but they are still there keeping a low profile, and we ask people not to disturb them at this early stage in their little lives.

Other wildlife as usual continues to flourish around the park.

Planting

Some planting has taken place in the park over the last month.

Firstly we had a planting of some Helibores given to us by the by the Keep Wales Tidy Natural Buzz Campaign.

These were planted the newly located bench in the second woods. Plenty of people turned up to help us do the planting and we thank you all for you help.

And some wildflower seeds were sown for the Grow Wild Kew Gardens Campaign.

BMX TRACK

Year 10 pupils from Pontarddulais Comprehensive are now currently involved in a project with Swansea City Council's Richard Davies and Phil from Keep Wales Tidy to redesign the existing BMX track in the park.

An area of ground has been set aside to expand the track more into the woodlands and the pupils are currently working on designs for what they would like to see put there.

The school will come over the park to help dig clear any areas and hopefully they will in turn go on to help us with other projects within the park itself.

Hopefully from this a junior arm of FOCBP will be formed.

And health and safety considerations are being made to ensure the track is not dangerous to people using it or existing park users.

FOCBP volunteers will see to the initial clearence work of the area and tools and other equiptment will be available from the Park authorities for this project.

Tree Clearence

Recently a few dangerous tree and several dead ones were identified by the tree unit.

These have now been made safe and brought down where it was deemed necessary.

We would like to stress that any decision to bring a tree down is not made lightly and the decision to do this is never an easy one to make.

But the wood that is left behind is often recycled around the park and is a great source for wildfife habitats.

News

We had a report a short time ago of a scrambler bike using another part of the area around the park causing a noise disturbance.

Sadly somebody decided to ride the bike through the park at very high speed over the football pitches, but last month Safer Swansea managed to sign up a lot of new volunteers on it's community watch scheme and several people who witnessed the bike being ridden reported it on the 101 non emergency number.

And the latest report we have received is that names have been given to the PCSO'S who are following up on the information given to them.

This scheme does not only cover the park itself but other places around the community.

If you see any anti social behaviour taking place and it is a non emergency please ring on 101.

The more reports they have the more an area will be targeted for patrols.

As usual Thank You to everybody that has contributed images to our FaceBook page and Twitter site.

We hope to see more from you soon.

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and also on Twitter

link tabs are on the top of this page.

April Roundup

It has been another busy month over the park.

The month started off with a visit from Paul Evans from Safer Swansea who was on a recruitment drive to get more people involved in keeping an eye on the park and other places around the town. The Paws on Patrol scheme has been running for a few years and it has proven useful to helping the Police keep an eye on troublesome hotspots around the Swansea area.
It is free to join and you get a regular email informing you of everything that has happened.

We also had some vandalism, fires and an attempted dog napping in and around the park this month.
Details have been passed to the authorities as to who was causing the vandalism and the other destructive behaviour.

The dog napping is still being looked into but the dog was returned to the owner after they gave chase and managed to get a photo of the car and driver.
We are still looking into whether the incident has been reported to the police but we assure you the park is safe to use. Just be vigilant and report anything you see to call the numbers below.

Emergency Numbers.

Police Emergency 999

Police Non Emergency 101

Neighbourhood watch 582851

Abandoned untaxed cars 635600

Grafitti removal 635600

Dog fouling 635600

A dog walker was seen recently walking through the park with her two dogs which sadly had health problems, her dogs were wearing yellow ribbons and this is encouraged by vets as a warning that others should keep away or at least keep their pets away due to health problems.

It is a great simple idea.

Although the majority of park users are respectful to others you always get one that will ruin it for everybody.

This month we have engaged with Pontarddulais Comprehensive School yr 10 pupils to help redesign the BMX track to make it better than the current layout.

This will be an ongoing project and it will be a great opportunity for the pupils to gain work skills and develop other skills such as planning working within a community group and other skill sets.

The project will be managed by Swansea CC and Keep Wales Tidy.

Now we are into the spring months the sun has been out and the colour has returned to the park.

We have been visited by Canadian Geese several have been spotted on the seasonal pond over the last month.

Also our Bluebells are beginning to show (YAY!!!) and we are expecting a bumper crop this year as we have been able to clear a larger area in the second woods (well Dillwyn has been a one man work machine we could not keep up with him).

On Tuesday 28th April we are planting some helibores flowers by the bench in the second woods as we received some Garden Centre Vouchers from Keep Wales Tidy to help us buy these bee friendly polinator plants we will also be putting up a sign to say we are managing this area.

If we could ask members of the public to please keep an eye on this patch for us it would be a great help.

The planting will take place on Tuesday 28th April at 7.00pm Friends members are asked to meet by the tennis courts at this time please bring your Hi-Viz vests and gloves with you please.
If you are passing through the park at that time please feel free to stop and have a chat with us.

And of course we have our AGM on Wednesday 29th April 7.00pm at Pontarddulais Cricket Club back room.

This year we are looking for a new Chairperson and possibly Treasurer.

If you know of anybody that can spare us some time (you can do as much or as little as you like in this group) than it would be a great help. We don't want to close the group up but we will carry on with our committee meetings but we will have to think radically how we go about achieving our business.

So please join us.

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Thank you to everyone that has contributed to our Social Media pages over the last few weeks and we hope to see you enjoying yourselves in the park soon.

Park History.

COED BACH PARK

Official Opening - July 29^th, 1922

Part of the estate of Sir Marteine Lloyd and Mr Moore - Gwyn of Neath

Opening Ceremony

The Pontarddulais town band with it's conductor Mr Jim Morris, led a procession of over 1000 children through the village to the entrance, where Gwynfryn road now stands.

Present

1. Miss Elaine Llewellyn performed the opening ceremony.

2. Her father Sir David Llewellyn.

3. Councillor Matthew Griffiths presided.

4. Mr Henry Perry-Chairman of the Parish Council.

5. D R Grenfell MP - Gower

6. John Williams MP.

7. Mr Vaughan Price-General Manager of Graigola Colliery (Cory).

8. Mr Daniel Morgan - Clerk of the Parish

People of Pontarddulais

Because of the inclement weather tea had been arranged at the Mechanic's Institute.

Guests were entertained with the music of Mr Ivor Williams and Mr Reginald Elias on the violin

(The later opened an electrical applience shop in St Teilo Street in the 1950's It was closed recently)

The Parish Council had a tablet of black granite installed at the old 'Ffynnon' alongside the path down to Yr Hen Eglwys on the March.

An Englyn was inscribed on the granite.

Gwin a groyw-wyd gan Grewr-yw ffynnon

A gorphenol wlybwr,

Bron haf, dibrui I yfwr,

Y sten Duw I estyn dwr.

A well is a wine purified by the creator,

The consummate drink,

At summers height, lavish to the drinker

God's pitcher to offer water.

A few years later, the whole area where water had flowed from the spring for countless centuaries was turned into a rubbish dump. It is now a football field

The parish council also installed a Royal Artilliery cannon near the Coed Bach fair entrance to the park. It caused controversy in the community and the canon was eventually pushed off it's concrete plinth and down a very steep slope!

The Park's facilities

Woods

Paths

A lake with boats and an island in the middle

Tennis courts

A croquet green

Swings

A rugby field (opened in 1930)

A football field

Over the years it has held

Carnivals

Circuses

Fairs

Band concerts

Rallies

The 'Monkey Parade' on Sunday evenings

The area was known as Coed Gweunydd Bach

Gweunydd - Meadows

Bibliography

'Bont. The history of the village' by Denver Evans.

'Images of Pontarddulais' By John Miles.