Monyash’s play area is located behind the pub and accessed from Chapel Street by the lane next to the Chapel.
100 Club subs now due…
As many of you know, the Play Park behind the pub has been supported generously over the years by residents. Every year the committee collects money for the ‘100 Club’ – a fun way to raise funds to make sure we can continue to provide a safe and fun place in which our children and, of course, visiting children, can play. For £10 a year, you’re assigned a number and once a month they do the prize draw. This year the committee has ambitious plans to not only improve the play park but hopefully introduce new items of equipment, helped enormously already thanks to a generous donation from the White Peak Walk. Your support is hugely appreciated, and the committee will be going around collecting the 100 Club money over the next few weeks. They also now have a card payment reader so if they see you face to face your donation can go straight into the Play Park’s bank account. If you’re not already in the 100 Club but would like to become a regular donor (with a chance of winning in the monthly draw!), let us know. You can send a message as per the following…
If you would like to find out more about the play area or help look after it, please send a message via this page.
The park was completely refurbished in 2006. It now provides a range of equipment including a zip wire, swings, slides, climbing frames and see-saws … for children of all ages and abilities, from toddlers to teenagers, with equipment adapted for children with special needs. The park is easily accessible for people with pushchairs and wheelchairs.
Monyash Playing Fields Committee would like to thank the following organisations and charities who funded the new park: The Big Lottery Fund, The Onyx Environmental Trust, Landfill Tax Monies of Waste Recycling Group (WRG) administered by Environmental Body WREN, The Duke of Devonshire’s Charitable Trust, the Derbyshire Dales District Council and the Peak District National Park Authority.
Grateful thanks are also due to The White Peak Walk team, and Monyash residents who help look after the park, year in, year out.
Photographs by Samantha Johnston
The development of the new park
Monyash Playground has been run by a village charity since the 1980s. The original equipment was erected by villagers in 1984 supported by a grant from the Integrated Rural Development Fund. Although it was orginally an award winning park, the years had taken their toll and the equipment was becoming unsafe and slowly being removed piece by piece. During 2002, in the village planning process, the children of Monyash School highlighted the playground as a major area of concern. They said they would like “a bigger, better, improved park with mended or new swings. A better slide, perhaps a helter-skelter type and a better climbing frame. A better or fixed see saw and a roundabout”.
In early 2004 the Playing Fields Committee asked the children for their help. They took a group of 16 children out to 3 local parks and let them play. The children were asked what they most liked. The Committee then set out to try and deliver the park that the children wanted, whilst at the same time making sure that children of all ages and abilities, from toddlers to teenagers, would have something wonderful to play on. The children have been key to the development of the new play area: they viewed and approved the plans, produced signs for the park and, in the future, it is hoped that they will help with shrub or tree planting.
Through their involvement in the development of the park it is hoped that the children will be encouraged look after the park and also realise that they have the ability to change things in their lives for the better.