Darren Shepherd, tells David Myers about the trees as Friends gather with spades

“A superb morning and a great effort by like minded people”.  That was the verdict of the Friends who turned out on a drizzly morning to be told by project manager Darren Shepherd how to slit plant 104 trees donated by the Woodland Trust for a wildlife shrub border to celebrate the Queen’s Jubilee.

After an initial damp start, we were soon stripping off, as the sun beat down on our efforts, and the digging started to work those calories.  As if to help us, no sooner had we finished our Yorkshire snack of tasty fruit cake and cheese, than the heavens opened and rained poured down on the newly planted whips: we hope that is a good omen !

This was the first Friends project to get underway,  and Councillor Graham Latty came to open the event and wish us well.  Cllr Latty has played a key role in the setting up of the Friends to work with Bellway on the Park. Friends who took part and whose comments will be recorded in the 2012 Jubilee Royal Record book were:-

Joanna Brooks

Andy Cheetham

Roger Halliwell

David Ingham (Chairman of WARD)

Peter and Jennifer Kirkby

Richard Lamb

Cllr Graham Latty

Liz, Ben and Freddie Lawson

David Myers

Mark and Jamie (Pudsey Landscapes)

Sarah and  Darren  Shepherd and daughter Ruby

John Tate

Barbara Winfield

Many thanks must also go to Pudsey Landscapes who very kindly donated the canes and tree guards – thank you Paul O’Brian.

Friends at the Royal Oak

The event finished, with our last job of the day; to plant a little oak sapling, sent to us by the Woodland Trust, from the Royal Sandringham Estate.  There will be few of us digging today who will see it reach to great heights; but, maybe little Ruby Shepherd, together with Ben and Freddie Lawson, may be able to sit under the oak on Jubilee Walk in their dotage and tell their grandchildren about the day they planted the tree in the Park.  (And, we hope the Park is still there for the people of Guiseley to enjoy.)

(More pictures of the event in the gallery.)