Park given special status to mark Diamond Jubilee in Clane (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Park given special status to mark Diamond Jubilee in Clane

8:00am Sunday 28th October 2012 in News

More than 40 supporters attended a tree planting ceremony in Calne on Sunday to celebrate the designation of a local park as a QEII Field.

Castlefields Canal and River Park is now a Queen Elizabeth II Field, which means it will always be protected as an open space.

It is one of 2,012 sites in Britain to have been awarded the status by Fields in Trust (FIT) to mark the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.

Members of Castlefields River and Park Association (CARP) invited the Marquis of Lansdowne and Calne Mayor Roy Golding to see the 12 Jubilee Scots pines planted in a circle.

The trees were planted by volunteers over three days.

Shannon Newton, from FIT, also attended and said a few words about the project.

Mr Golding, who helped to unveil a ceremonial plaque, said: “It was a beautiful day and a very up-lifting experience, knowing that the area will now stay green for ever more.

“CARP has a good core of supporters, but a lot of other local people came out as well.”

The group has been working to restore the park, just behind Patford Road and Station Road, since 1999, and this May they held an event to officially name a narrow boat in the newly refurbished canal lock.

They applied to be a QEII Field 18 months ago and when they were successful, they also applied for a grant from the SITA Trust.

The trust, which distributes landfill tax credits on behalf of SITA UK, granted £2,000 to buy trees from Chew Valley Nursery.

CARP chairman Denis Robinson said after this hard work he was delighted to know the park would be protected for future generations.

He said: “It’s an honour to have got that designation.

“Now we are a QEII Field, that means the Fields in Trust will be able to help and support us in the future.

“It’s a piece of countryside right in the town centre. That’s the great thing because a lot of the paths are hard surfaces so you can wander around and enjoy the countryside close at hand.”

The group is also involved in an exhibition titled Castlefields Through Artists’ Eyes, which will be showing at the Calne Heritage Centre from Tuesday to November 3 and will include landscape and portrait drawings inspired by the park.