Following the very successful Coronation Picnic Party, by public request the Friends of PVG are running a similar event – Pinner Picnic in the park on Sunday 2nd June 2024, 12noon – 4pm. The free to enter event, invites people to bring-your-own-picnic to Pinner Village Gardens park. There will be music, children’s rides, food stalls and pond dipping. There will again be the very popular fun dog show.
It was a very busy Autumn and Winter for the volunteers of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens. This 6 page Newsletter gives at taste of all the activity. Remember more hands make lighter work – we are always happy to welcome new volunteers.
A government grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is helping to support a new event – Pinner Picnic 2024 – being organised by the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens. It will help to cover the costs of posters and banners.
The Committee of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens presented their Annual Report for the financial year 2022/23 at the Annual General Meeting in July 2023.
The Annual Report continues the style introduced with the Spring 2023 newsletter.
The 8-page document aims to provide an easy-to-read, illustrated snap-shot of the work of the Friends.
A special Coronation Picnic Party & dog show newsletter has been published by the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens to record this fun event as part of a historic weekend.
What it cannot show you is the hours of planning by the volunteers that went into making it a success before and after the event. The party is not over until the clearing-up is done.
There are lots of photos – you may see yourself or your dog – but we cannot include everyone.
It was a great surprise that King’s representative for Greater London Deputy Lieutenant Simon Ovens attended to deliver a message from King Charles III, and accompanied the then Mayor of Harrow Councillor Janet Mote.
This is the first edition of the new Newsletter for Friends of Pinner Village Gardens.
This Spring 2023 edition looks forward to an exclusive visit to see rare, historic, fragile botanic books and to our Coronation Event & Picnic Party on Sunday 7 May 2023, gardening tips for Spring into Summer, and a brief look at the past very cold Winter.
It also includes an exclusive opportunity to visit to the rare & historic books section of the Royal Horticultural Society’s Library in central London.
Very few people get this opportunity to go behind the scenes into this strictly controlled, secure, climate-controlled library area.
For these reasons, this opportunity is initially only being offered to Life Members and those who have renewed their Annual subscriptions (individual and family).
Tickets are £10 per person, limited to a maximum of two. The visit is Tuesday 13 June 2023. More details are in the Newsletter or contact us.
We are very privileged to be given this opportunity by the RHS Library and delighted that they are supporting the work of the Friends of PVG in the park.
In future, this quarterly Newsletter will only be emailed to Life Members and those with current paid Annual subscriptions. This is to give our subscribers the first opportunity to join special visits, talks, or training sessions we plan to run. Some four weeks later we will publish it on this website.
We are pleased to announce that we are holding our first Dog Show as part of our Coronation Picnic Fun Event on Sunday 7th May in Pinner Village Gardens.
Registration will take place in the park for the Dog Show between 12 pm and 2 pm, it’s important to come on time for this as there is keen interest. Judging will commence at 2:30 pm.
1st, 2nd and 3rd in each category will be awarded rosettes and all entrants will be sent a certificate.
Entry is £1 per dog per category with funds raised going towards maintaining the park.
The fun categories are:
The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens are all looking forward to the Coronation Event and Picnic and hope you are too. For further information on the overall event, please see our announcement here.
The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens are finalising plans for the Coronation Picnic and Fun Event on Sunday 7 May.
The event will take place from 12 noon to 4 pm. There will be live music including Harrow Steel Band, children’s rides, stalls, and food.
Understanding nature pond dipping will take place around 1.30 pm.
The Dog Show takes place at 2.30 pm and includes fun categories such as ‘Most Regal Promenade’ where the handler must be in royal fancy dress, but not the dog.
To take part in the Dog Show register in the park before 2 pm, £1 per category. Other Categories are: Old Grey Whisker Test for dogs over 9 years; Be Good sit, down, stay adult dogs; Happy Puppy under 1 year; and the ‘Waggiest Tail’ for all.
There will be stalls and local trades participating for a donation towards the upkeep of Pinner Village Gardens. The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens need to raise about £4,000 a year to keep the park looking lovely. The Friends welcome donations of any size to help this work.
To volunteer for the event, apply to host a stall or if you have any questions Contact the Friends via our contact form here. Get your picnic packed for Sunday 7 May!
The Friends of Pinner Village Gardens 2022 Annual General Meeting was held on Monday evening at the Pinner Arms near the park. We had nineteen attendees for the proceedings, which covered diverse points such as the membership pricing, mowing regime, changes to the constitution, the plans for interpretation panels for the ridge and furrow field and of course this year’s committee election.
As part of the review of the constitution of Friends of Pinner Village Gardens, changes were voted in with immediate effect to revise the election period for committee members from one year to three, modify the Junior Ambassador position to become a new general Committee Member 3 and bring in a formal co-opting process so that committee positions can more easily become filled between AGMs should they become vacant.
It was proposed that membership rates should increase for the first time since the formation of the Friends, going from £5 to £10 for a yearly membership, and £50 to £100 for a lifetime membership. While existing Friends on yearly memberships will remain on the current pricing, they will be written to in order to advise them of this change.
It is the objective that memberships should pay for the ongoing maintenance of the park, which is estimated to be around £2000 a year. Special projects, such as park improvements will come from further donations and by seeking grants through awarding bodies.
The votes were held to elect the new committee, including a new chair following the departure of Antonia Savvides earlier this year.
The posts of Event Coordinator and Funding Coordinator remain vacant. If you are interested in assisting the Friends in those roles, please do get in touch with us at info@pinnervillagegardens.org.uk.
Dodie will be well known to our volunteers and frequent visitors to the park and has been co-opted onto the Committee for most of the last year as Volunteer Coordinator. She has been in particular leading on the design of the new planting scheme for the Hereford Gardens entranceway. We would also like to welcome back Jonathan Freedman to the post of Volunteer Coordinator, who is another very familiar face to all those in the park frequently.
The long-awaited Pinner Village Gardens junior parkrun has now begun 5 years after it was first discussed at a meeting of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens committee. At last! It took extensive planning, several meetings, fundraising and a major pandemic interruption but here we are.
As a reminder, the event takes place every Sunday morning at 9 am, it’s a 2km course for children between the ages of 4 and 14 though accompanying adults can take part but will not have a time recorded. So far (as of 28th February), three official events have taken place with growing numbers of children and adults taking part. The small organising team of local community members have been working hard at getting the event ready for our children to enjoy in a safe environment and each week spend several hours in preparation.
The organising team recognise the event has also been made possible due to the effort and generosity of so many people, particularly that of the committee and members of the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens, local community groups and businesses.
It was the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens who went about raising the majority of the £4,000 needed to establish the event. A huge thanks go out to Antonia Saviddes and Jaykishan Vala for their amazing fundraising efforts. Major donations came from the Friends of Pinner Village Gardens, Pinner Association, Shanly Foundation, Cheeky Chums, PMC Pinner, Carters Chemists, Ideal Fish Bar, Paige and Petrook, Smart Guys, Anana Health and Beauty, Happy Day Hallmark and Diamond Hair Design as well as several individuals who made vital contributions.
As the event continues to attract new participants, it has become clear the junior parkrun is becoming a true community and social gathering as well as providing fun and health benefits for our children. So please do come along and join in, bring your children or just come along for the fun, perhaps help out by volunteering!
The Pinner Village Gardens junior parkrun website link is below. Check it out for further information, results and volunteering opportunities: .https://www.parkrun.org.uk/pinnervillagegardens-juniors/
Also the Facebook page for regular updates: https://www.facebook.com/Pinner-Village-Gardens-junior-parkrun-108549525081564
