Tomorrow the Warley Woods Community Trust will be holding their annual Picnic in the Park and hundreds of local people will turn up with food and drink to enjoy the live music, and (hopefully) a bit of sunshine. Tomorrow's picnic also celebrates the centenary of the parkland being dubbed 'The People's Park' after it was brought into public ownership by local councils and public subscriptions. Over the last few decades the Woods and Park went into fairly sharp decline, but in recent years it has been taken over by a Community Trust and run by local people. With a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund they are starting to restore the park to its former glory, and tomorrow local historian Professor Carl Chinn will be broadcasting his local radio show from the picnic site.
Carl wrote a really good piece about the history of the 'People's Park for a local newspaper recently, and the Trust have published a Centenary publication which you can get for less than a tenner + postage (details are on their website).
