Hoton Playing Field Community Project

PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR.
CHEIKA KENNEDY,St Leonards Church, Wymeswold Road, Hoton, Loughborough, Leic. LE12 5SN tel 01509 881697/07904 523817 cheika@doctors.org.uk

LATEST NEWS

July 2008

Full funding has been achieved for the park. Expect work to be in full flow at the beginning of August. The concrete has already been cleared of weeds and is ready for resurfacing.

But most exciting is the 'wildflower meadow'. The whole area is awash with flowers - corn cockles, poppies, marigolds, daisies and cornflowers. Impressive as the seeds were only sown in March. Go over and see for yourself.
I will keep you up to date with progress. Expect news of the tennis and gardening clubs soon, as well as plans for the proposed launch day upon completeion.

Wild flower meadow

UPDATE APRIL 2008

Progress continues apace at the Hoton Playing Field. The latest development is the creation of the wildflower meadow.

A donation of 100 tonnes of topsoil had been originally made by the builders, William Davis, and delivered to the park in winter. It had remained in a large pile during the worst of the weather, having missed the opportunity to sow the seeds in Autumn.

Last month, another generous donation from local resident Robert Moyle, chairman of North Midland Construction plc, saw the pile of earth transformed into an even, landscaped form and suddenly our vision became a reality.

The ground works took two days and saved the project up to £3 000! Our huge thanks must go to North Midland Construction plc, Robert Moyle and his team; Matt Barney, Richard Colleran and Dennis Gannon – who with good humour shifted all the soil aside to permit breaking up the concrete surface to improve drainage, then redistribute it all back into a landscaped, smooth, tilled form, ready for sowing.

We wasted no time in capitalising on the fine weather and 2kg of wildflower cornfield annuals and cereal seeds were sown within days of the work being completed. By late summer, we should see the area awash with poppies, cornflowers, marigold, corn cockle and chamomile and we hope will be a riot of colour in time for our proposed launch day, upon completion of the playing field project.

Our small, rural village has successfully raised £36.5k from grants and sponsorship for the park equipment, but owes a debt of gratitude to all those who continue to overwhelm us with their generosity and help us keep costs down.

Cheika Kennedy, Project Coordinator

Groundwork in progress

Site of wild flower garden

Fund raising evening

'An evening with Aggers'

On April 26th, 2008, Hoton enjoyed the highlight of its social calendar to date. A complete sell-out three weeks before the event, apologies to those who missed the boat.

A fund-raising dinner to support the playing field redevelopment project was planned, following a pledge of support from then local resident, Jonathan ‘Aggers’ Agnew. A fast-bowler for Leicestershire and England, Aggers has become rather more noted for his smooth commentary as the BBC cricketing correspondent.

We were blessed with the weather and enjoyed cocktails and canapés on the village hall lawn. Everyone looked resplendent in black-tie and evening dress and the hall surpassed itself, looking every bit the prime venue, with a bit of careful dressing from my team – Chris Cassell, Andrea Porter and Ali Scobbie – enhanced by table decorations from Marion Plummer and bay trees, cricket stumps and tea lights from the Isbisters of ‘The worm that turned’.

Catering was provided by Mac & White and was declared universally superb. Bubbly was plentiful and table wine had been provided from a donation of my Nectar points! Individual tortes from North’s of Rothley were served on tiered cake stands and drew gasps from the audience, as did the announcement of the imminent arrival of my third child!

Aggers was a true gent and a real charmer, his speech an interesting mix of cricketing anecdotes and general amusing tales. He mixed with the crowds and was happy to sign autographs and donated a signed book and cricket balls for the raffle and auction.

The evening was rounded off with live music from local band, the Mucky Pups. We raised a total of £2099 from ticket sales, the auction and raffle.

I can’t name everyone here, but would like to thank everyone who supported the evening and those who pledged prizes to auction or raffle and helped make the evening a huge success.