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.

Summer Sounds

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.
School Centenary

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.
Ronnie & the Rockits

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.
In Bloom

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.
Control Centre

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.
Flowers

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.
Entertainment

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.
Borders

Entertainment and enjoyment midweek were provided by the huge variety of flowers in the various beds and borders throughout the park.
Civic Party

The civic party were framed for a photograph for Erewash Sound, the local radio station who were also present on Sunday afternoon.
Park Welcome

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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