I recently had the opportunity to visit another local authority public open space, Ravenhill Park Rugeley near Cannock Chase, in my capacity as a judge for the Green Flag Awards scheme. 

The earliest record of Ravenhill Park is in 1937 when Rugeley Urban District Council purchased Ravenhill House. It was on the site of where the play area is now. The house was offered by Lady Zouche as a military hospital during WW1 1914-1918 and then for training soldiers during WW2 1939-1945.  

Ravenhill Park entrance 

The eight-hectare site is a popular public amenity. It includes a tennis court, play area including paddling pool, outdoor gym station, football pitch, large open grass areas and woodland areas.

The park was officially opened in 1953 and the paddling pool and toilets were opened in 1962. The paddling pool is still a popular facility and well used during the summer months. It has been recently refurbished and must be perhaps one of the only surviving local authority outdoor paddling pools still in use.

L-R: Dave Wright, Tom Walsh, Lynn Evans, Sue Merriman 

I met up with Tom Walsh, Sue Merriman, Lynn Evans and Dave Wright who are key members of staff, responsible for the upkeep and management of the park. Tom is Cannock Chase Council’s parks and open spaces manager and, with the support of the valuable community partners, is responsible for the day-to-day maintenance of the facility. 

It is always nice to meet these dedicated parks people who are committed to keeping these valuable landscape assets maintained and fit for purpose - especially during the ongoing austerity measures faced by local authorities. 

Weather

The current weather front is continuing to be a great challenge for our professional and volunteer grounds practitioners. With temperatures fairly low for June and the persistent rain showers, I don’t envy the job of the cricket fraternity who are trying to prepare decent pitches amongst all these constant poor weather fronts. 

The months of June and July are usually the busiest period for cricket clubs. With matches being played both mid-week and weekends, spare a thought for the elite county grounds staff who are busy preparing Test wickets for the upcoming test matches. 

When will summer finally arrive? Well reading Mark Hunt's weather blog, Mark says the jet stream is on the move northwards and that will finally allow some warm / hot air to push up from Europe. Which is long overdue!

Predicting when we will receive a prolonged period of heat though is another matter, with the GFS and ECMWF projections changing daily. We are in a transition and it'll likely be a bumpy one. June to date has been uncharacteristically cool with some very cold nights for this time of year.

It seems from reading Mark's blog there is no indication of any prolonged warm weather fronts coming our way in the coming weeks.   

Industry talk

I also recently, had the opportunity to visit and catch up with Jonathan Knowles, head of the Sports Turf Academy at Leicester Football Club’s Seagrave training ground.

The facility is an 185-acre site, formerly a golf course, that includes an array of first class training facilities including:-

• 21 playing surfaces – including 14 full-size pitches
• 499-seater floodlit main pitch
• The Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha Building – the site’s primary training, medical, and administrative hub for the first team and academy
• The King Power Centre – the site’s central point, housing an indoor pitch and media centre
• Elite sports science and medical facilities including cryotherapy chambers
• Bespoke gymnasium and hydrotherapy facilities
• Sports Turf Academy for the education and development of industry-leading grounds staff and a private nine-hole golf course.

We had a fascinating talk about our industry and more importantly about some of the issues challenging our industry in terms of education and promotion of the role for grounds professionals. 

I shall be providing a full report on our conversation in a forthcoming issue of TurfPro.