Sweyne Park Open Space
History and make up of the park
The area currently known as Sweyne Park Open
Space was originally war time agricultural land, after which it
continued in agricultural tenancy until transferred from the
Ministry of Agriculture to Rochford District Council in the late
1980’s.
About 1990, the Council engineers created a
circular bridle path on the land, planted a few trees and added a
small lake.
In 1992, the area was handed over to the
Councils Parks and Open Spaces Officer, who for the past 18 years
has developed the park by planting trees, shrubs, whips and
wild flowers. The majority of plants are fruiting varieties
that encourage and support wildlife in the park.
The park is approximately 57 acres in size,
with 2 kilometres of pathways and 4 Kilometres of hedging. This has
been an ongoing project and various ‘islands’ of trees and shrubs
have been planted over the years. In addition to this, willow
cuttings, from another park in the district, were planted alongside
some of the ditches and in the wet areas of the park; these have
grown into beautiful trees that have solved the problem of
waterlogged ground in these areas.
The central area of the park consists of a
large ‘hill like’ meadow area that is very popular with dog
walkers. To encourage ground nesting birds and other wildlife, this
area is only cut once a year, however, there are mown ‘pathways’
crossing the meadow.
The lake was extended when the Downhall Park
Way Housing Estate was built to create an Environmental Balancing
Lake to help prevent flooding in the area.
This lake is divided in two:
- The upper pond, which is surrounded by trees,
shrubs and grasses, with common reeds and lily stands on the pond
edges that extend into the pond all of which provides an excellent
habitat for wildlife.
-
- The lower pond is much more open and
currently used by fishermen. The only fish originally placed in the
pond over 20 years ago were some grass carp, to help keep the weeds
down, however, over the years people have put other fish in this
pond creating more of an ‘ornamental’ pond.
Some areas around the park, may appear to be
unkempt and messy, but these are valuable wildlife habitats, indeed
following a survey around the lake by Essex Wildlife Trust, they
have advised us to leave some areas untouched and to create
‘habitat piles’ to encourage the wildlife.
To the north eastern corner of the park, there
is a children’s enclosed ‘cloverleaf’ play space, which has
sections for infant, primary and junior school age children. This
was installed in 1994 and there is a kicking/graffiti wall for
teenagers, as well as a large area of mown grass where families can
picnic or play games.
There are plans to repair and install a
drainage system in the car park and surrounding area in 2010-11 to
help prevent flooding during the wet winter months. It is hoped
that this will provide an all weather access point for visitors to
enter the park throughout the year.
Species to see in the park
Birds: Blue Tits; Long Tailed Tits; Green
Finches; Black Caps; Starlings; Blackbirds; Collared Doves;
Whitethroats; Green Woodpeckers; Sparrow Hawks.
Trees: Willow; Oak; Alder; Elm; Poplar; Hazel;
Wild Apple; Wild Pear; Hawthorn; Sloe; Bird Cherry; Scotch Pine;
Various Acers
Amphibians and Reptiles: Common Frog
Mammals: Foxes; Bats
Grasses: Timothy; Ryegrasses; Chewing
Fescue
Agricultural wild flowers: Meadow Salsify;
NB. An interesting wildflower to see when the
grass is a full growth on the meadow is the Meadow Salsify, better
known by it’s old fashioned name of ‘Jack go to bed at noon’. This
plant flowers between June and October but will only open in the
morning sunshine and closes by noon, hence the name!
How to get there
The main entrance to the park is from Downhall
Hall Park Way, where there is a car park. Further entrances are at
the top of Victoria Avenue; From the footpath at the end of Priory
Chase; Downhall Park Way opposite the junction with Canterbury
Close and at the cul-de-sac end of Downhall Park Way.
Please note there are no toilets or
baby changing facilities in the park.
Friends of Sweyne Park Open Space
In 2009, the Friends of Sweyne Park Open Space group was formed.
Friends groups allow the local community to have a say in how their
local park is managed. As they are the users of these facilities,
they are best placed to say what is needed in the park. In addition
to this, they often organise small events in the park such as
nature or bird watching walks.
If you would like to know more about joining the Friends of
Sweyne Park Open Space, please contact Heather Meggison on 01702
318057 or email footprints.sweynepark@hotmail.co.uk