Manor Park Friends Group - We're a group of local people, constituted as an official Friends Group, who work together to run events that promote our lovely park. We meet every couple of months and also have sub-committees for events management. We keep our subscription to a very affordable £2 per year in order to attract the whole community, but you don't have to be a member to take part.
Manor Park is Sutton's busiest park and is a focal point for the flats and houses surrounding the High Street. It has the highest footfall of Sutton's park and is used by shoppers and local workers as their 'back garden'.
The Friends group organises litter picking, bulb and wildflower planting, community festivals and other events, raises money for amenities such as the community orchard and restoring our iconic fountain and keep our local councillors aware of local concerns and triumphs. Every Christmas we run our christmas Lights and Mulled wine and Carols events in the park cafe to raise funds for Sutton Mayor's charities.
In 2019 we were lucky enough to receive Greener City funding, matched by Sutton Council, and we planted a social orchard in partnership with Social Orchards and Manor Park Primary School, which we expect to be providing free, healthy fruit for the community in 2021. We also raised funds to replace an historic avenue of trees to improve shade and drainage and to bring interest to a slightly barren area of the park. In 2023, we raised £15,000 to add to a £35,000 grant from Sutton Council to restore our beloved Manor Park fountain in time for its centenary this year.
Our previous Spacehive funding really kickstarted Manor Park Friends and we now provide annual educational and fun free activities in the Summer holidays, including Landscape Artist of the Year, a fun Dog Show, plus yoga, community art and sports and lots more Christmas events.
