Ilkeston - Park Contrasts
w/e 03 August 2014
All of this week's pictures were
taken with a Kodak DX6490
Victoria Park has been in the news recently for several
reasons. A Heritage Lottery Fund grant has been awarded which
will enable the bandstand and the pergola to be restored and
gates to be installed at the main entrances to the park to the
same design as those that stood there when the park was originally
opened. It has also been awarded Green Flag status for another
year and on a sadder note, the bowling green has been subjected
to some mindless vandalism. There are many facets to the park
and below are images that contrast just two of them taken a few
days apart.
On Sunday afternoon the crowds turned up en masse on a lovely
warm afternoon for an event under the title of "Summer Sounds"
where musical entertainment was provided on the bandstand until
the early evening.
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A few days later the same area around the bandstand was deserted.
The banked display surrounded by the fence marks the centenary
of the opening of Ilkeston School in 1914.
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The main focus of attention on Sunday was the bandstand where
the concert was opened by Ronnie and the Rockits, a local group
playing a nostalgic selection of songs from the fifties and sixties.
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The centre of attention midweek switched to the flower beds in
the middle of the park which is one of the main exhibits in the
town's entry into the "In Bloom" competitions.
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The headline act that closed the Sunday concert was Paper Lace
who hit the top of the pop charts in 1974 with "Billy Don't
Be A Hero" but all of the musicians were reliant on a bank
of knobs and switches to relay and amplify their music to the
assembled crowd and all the surrounding district.
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Later in the week it was a bank of flowers that I caught in one
of the beds at the main entrance to the park.
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As well as the music there was much more entertainment on Sunday
afternoon including stilt walkers, a bouncy slide and free candy
floss for the children.
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Entertainment and enjoyment midweek were provided by the huge
variety of flowers in the various beds and borders throughout
the park.
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The civic party were framed for a photograph for Erewash Sound,
the local radio station who were also present on Sunday afternoon.
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And the "Welcome to Victoria Park" sign acted as a
frame for some more of the flowers that adorn the park, It is
here that one of the gates funded by the Lottery Grant will be
erected and that will provide a fitting frame indeed to this
well-loved venue so much appreciated by the majority of the town's
population.
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