SAVING SOUTH CLIFF GARDENS Monthly Update Hello and welcome to the South Cliff Gardens Monthly Update! Here we will share all the most recent news from the South Cliff 1
Merry Christmas from the whole of the South Cliff Gardens Community Team!! The picture above was produced by our Project Officer s little brother who created this artwork on paint https://www.instagram.com/bsixes/ The Christmas tree has arrived in Prince of Wales Gardens. Thanks are due to the Red Lea Hotel who kindly sponsor this seasonal beacon and Roger Burnett who organises setting up the tree. 2
New Consultant s to take on the HLF phase 2 bid for South Cliff Gardens What s been happening. Southern Green the consultants responsible for producing our round two submission have hit the ground running; here's a few activities that have been carried out by Southern Green and our amazing team of experts: Landscape topographic survey completed at the end of November. Building topographic survey completed in December. Arboricultural survey in progress. Design consultants appointed. Consultation plan in progress and initial session held with local residents and FoSCG. Garden Historian and FOSCG visited County Archives. Initial site analysis plans underway which will feed into the Conservation Management Plan. For example, historic map reviews, existing building analysis, footpath gradient analysis, site context and other desktop mapping studies. Huge shout out to Southern Green and their team for the amazing work the y have done so far! 3
CFP (Community First Partnership) join the Saving South Cliff Gardens Team! CFP is a specialist Heritage and Green Space consultancy that have extensive knowledge of developing, managing and delivering HLF projects. The team has worked on over 100 such projects since the company was established in 2002. CFP has worked with Southern Green on a number of HLF and other projects and we recently completed the R2 submission at North Marine Park in South Shields. CFP run the monitoring contract for the HLF Parks for People project and have been involved in gathering data from HLF funded projects for the last 9 years. Consultation on the Saving South Cliff Gardens project has now started and this will run alongside the site survey work being coordinated by Southern Green. We will be launching a new visitor survey early in 2018 and will be running other surveys including a schools survey in the new year. During the development stage works we will be running workshops, exhibitions and drop in sessions to provide an opportunity to talk with visitors to the gardens and local residents. Once proposals have been developed we will then be seeking feedback from local people about the draft plans. CFP also carried out research for HLF for the State of UK Parks reports in both 2014 and 2016. We will use this newsletter to promote these opportunities and look forward to hearing your views. 4
Regular visitors to the Esplanade will have noticed that the boat in the boat bed has been missing since it was lent to an exhibitor with a show garden at the Chelsea Flower show. Well as you can see from a picture taken on a grey November day, it's back. WELCOME HOME! Three of our volunteers clearing a flower bed ready for planting. Hard work but it will be worth it when next year there will be flowers to brighten the path down to the Spa Complex. The daffodils we planted are already showing but the cold weather will slow them down. 5
Friends Group Visit Pannett Park Early in November a group of our volunteers visited Pannett Park to see how their Heritage Lottery Fund project has prospered. It clearly has been a very successful exercise in regenerating a neglected park. We have many of the same issues they confronted and we are determined to have a similar result. Pannett Park is really an attractive pleasant park with a quality we will strive to achieve. This young man from Landform Surveys working in the gardens was taking three dimensional pictures of all the buildings/structures in the gardens for use in the stage two Parks for People Heritage Lottery bid. The project is really getting moving! 6
The Friends of South Cliff Gardens meet Southern Green Pictured is the Friends first introduction to the people from Southern Green the consulting firm leading our stage two bid to the Heritage Lottery. Pictured to the right is Simon Green who is a Chartered Landscape Architect with almost 30 years professional experience. Prior to founding Southern Green in 1997 he worked in local authorities and private practice and was project manager for the award-winning Royal Quays urban renewal project. Simon specialises in heritage projects and has helped local authorities and community groups secure a staggering 51million in HLF grants over the last decade so we think we are in safe hands. 7
Here s a photo provided by Green Counsellor, Mark Vesey showing the Sea Queen Pageant at the Spa descending the steps. If anyone remembers this please do get in touch! South Cliff Story Sharing Event Thanks to everyone who joined us at Scarborough library on the first three Saturdays of December. People came along to share their stories, memories, photos or anything interesting about Scarborough s South Cliff Gardens. We are building an archive about the garden so these events were very useful. Here s one of our favourites... I ve lived here for 30 years and I used to walk my dogs every morning in the South Cliff Gardens. One morning at about 06:10hrs I walked across the top of the Holbeck Ravine, looked down and about 10 meters below me a deer gave birth to two young. She stood and cleaned them up in the morning sun it was just magical! 8 Huge thanks to Scarborough s library for letting us use their facilities! Our Project Officer Vicky said I learnt more in an hour at the library then I did in a month of googling the South Cliff Gardens!
ACCESS AND INCLUSION Creating a fully inclusive and accessible heritage garden Originally the South Cliff Gardens were designed to boost the wellbeing and health of visitors to Scarborough. People flocked to take the spa waters and get fresh air by walking the Cliffside gardens. Today mental health is an increasing issue for the people of Scarborough so our community team Mental have decided Health that we need to bring back some of that original identity and purpose. If you have any ideas or would like to be involved please see the contact page and get in touch! Dementia Friendly Garden Several members of the Scarborough Dementia Action Alliance have fond memories of Several members of the Scarborough Dementia Action Alliance have fond the South Cliff Gardens, and regret no longer being able to enjoy them. They thus welcome memories the of opportunity the South to Cliff contribute Gardens, to the and Project regret discussions, no longer being and to able the Gardens to enjoy becoming accessible for people with dementia and their carers. them. They thus welcome the opportunity to contribute to the Project discussions, and to the Gardens becoming accessible Tim Kirkup for people with dementia and their carers. Chair Tim Kirkup, Chair https://www.dementiaaction.org.uk/local_alliances/10687_scarborough_dementia_action_alliance https://www.dementiaaction.org.uk/ local_alliances/10687_scarborough_dementia_action_alliance DAA members have been very supportive of the project and have offered hugely valuable contributions which will help us make the gardens 9 as accessible as possible! It s going to be a big
Huge thanks to Scarborough Sight Support Our project Officer Vicky Thompson was lucky enough to be invited along to one of Scarborough s Sight Support lunches to ask the group what they thought we could do in the South Cliff Gardens to make the site more accessible to people who have visual impairments. Huge thank to Sight Support for their warm welcome, their advice and the amazing work they do in the community giving people back their independence. Here s some of their recommendations: Keep planting brightly coloured and contrasting, yellow is good! Handrails are essential on steps and slopes For me it s like looking through net curtains I can t see anything unless it s really bright or lit up. When you re designing the garden think about what it would look like through net curtains If the edges of paths were a different colour that would be good so we know we are not going to wonder off the edge of a cliff. Strip lighting is good for this too Yes signs that say Spa this way for people who are going to attend concerts they regularly get lost in the garden you need signs that are lit up that they can see from a long way away Toilets need to be your number on priority. You need more toilets in particular disabled and accessible toilets with radar keys but put them in places where there is no vandalism. We cant use the garden without toilets(whole group agrees) Something exciting with wow factor!! Soft plants no spikes or thorns something gentle that asks just to be stroked! To find out more about Scarborough Sight Support: Web: www.ycss.org.uk Call: 01723354417 Open 10am 4pm 10
TRAINING AND VOLUNTEERING Join us Amazing organization Northern Regeneration are passionate about reducing Scarborough s skills gap in construction and offering young people the opportunity to learn real on the job skills. Our Team is going to be working with them to set up a horticultural skills village here in the South Cliff Gardens during the delivery stage. Offering local people the opportunity to learn about horticulture and heritage skills in a real life work setting. Well that s the plan! Find out more about the Skills Village here: http://skills-village.co.uk/ Here in the South Cliff Gardens Team we excited to be are linking up with Historic England s Heritage Schools programme. The Pogramme manager for the North said: I cant wait to get stuck in and work on ideas to engage local Schools with Scarborough s heritage and the South Cliff Gardens offers lots of exciting opportunities to do so! The aim of the Heritage Schools programme is to make sure that: Children develop a sense of pride in where they live Children understand their local heritage and how it relates to the national story Teachers are more confident in making effective use of local heritage resources in delivering the curriculum Local historic context is embedded in the school's curriculum Heritage providers are more connected to the needs of local schools Parents are engaged in their children's learning Communities are more deeply involved in the life of the school Read more about the Heritage Schools Programme here: www.historicengland.org.uk/services-skills/ education/heritage-schools/ 11
CONTACT US Please get in touch If you're interested in getting involved in the project, would like to know more or you have a great idea, fabulous painting of the South Cliff or an interesting photo please do not hesitate to get in touch with us. The more people involved the merrier! Website: http:// friendsofsouthcliffgardens.com/ Facebook: www.facebook.com/ southcliffgardens Twitter: @HLFSCGarden Project Officer: Vicky Thompson Data Gathering Painting a picture of what the garden looks like now is really important so that we can demonstrate that all the hard work being carried out by our community has made an impact. victoria.thompson@scarborough.g ov.uk Find out more about the Heritage Lottery Fund here: https://www.hlf.org.uk/about-us We are gathering data through our online visitor survey, visitor interviews and counts, collecting peoples stories, wildlife sightings & surveys and old photographs, looking at archives and artworks. You can find the link to our online survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/ r/8wll6hy 12
BIG THANK YOU TO HLF! We would like to end the year by saying a huge thank you to the Heritage Lottery Fund and national lottery players who without them, our project to save the much loved South Cliff Gardens wouldn't be possible. 13