About the Friends of Priory Park
The Friends of Priory Park was founded in 1996 by Alison Johnston, who continues to serve on the committee today.
At the time, as now, Haringey had made big cuts to maintenance budgets and had greatly reduced the number of park workers. Priory Park was in a bad state of neglect and had problems with security and vandalism.
The Friends of Priory Park have always worked to preserve and protect the park, alongside Haringey Council, Conservation Volunteers and other groups.
The Friends of Priory Park committee are elected at the Annual General Meeting, usually held in January.
The committee, elected in 2021 is
Alice Tringham (chair), Chris Chadwick (vice-chair), Annabelle Bonus (secretary), Bethan Sussex (treasurer), Alison Johnston, Steve Hooper, Enrico de Vita, Jennifer Mann
Some of our activities ...
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with the Conservation Volunteers, we help to preserve wildlife, for example by maintaining the pond in the Philosophers' Garden
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we communicate with Haringey over their responsibilities including security, vandalism, maintaining playground equipment and benches, and removing rubbish
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we liaise closely with other parks in Haringey, through the Parks Forum with regard to issues affecting all green spaces within the borough.
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we organise a voluntary gardening group (for which we have bought some tools)
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we loan out litter pickers to individuals to pick up litter in their own time, and we hold the occasional litter picking day
... and achievements
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in 1999 the Friends raised millennium funds to have the wildlife pond installed in the Philosophers’ Garden, and commissioned a sculpture for The Drop (which is in the pond).
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in the years 2013-2015 the Friends, under the chairmanship of Chris Chadwick, raised the funds and organized the restoration of the tennis courts, which now provide free tennis all year round.
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in September 2018, in partnership with Elite Transformations, a sundial/totem pole was erected in the Philosophers’ Garden.
