Friends of Eastville Park 2025 Survey
This park user survey will help us to understand the needs of our community to direct our fundraising over the next 5 years. You do not need to sign into Google to respond, but if this option appears then try using a different internet browser.
>>>>> 2025 SURVEY CLICK HERE<<<<<
Who are friends of Eastville park?
Friends of Eastville Park are a Charity run by local residents who are trustees. We fundraise for the improvement and benefit of the park while working with Bristol City Council and park users. We also campaign against inappropriate development that threatens local green spaces that are essential for the wellbeing of Bristol’s communities.
Registered charity 1199637
We hold an open meeting twice a year to meet with other residents and share successes and listen. This gives an opportunity to meet other park users, chat about what you love or don’t love about the park, and how we can tackle problems together. We have a friendly facebook page for friends to chat, share photos, and join in with local events run by the team of trustees and volunteers.
Who are the Friends of Eastville Park committee?
The Friends of Eastville Park committee trustees are a small group of local residents that care about the park and want to help it stay amazing. To read more about our charity, please see the charities register
where you can find us with our charity number 1199637.
We all volunteer our time to liaise with local residents, Bristol City Council, Bristol Parks forum, interest groups, and Neighbourhood networks to make things happen. There are currently 8 members of the committee including chair, secretary, and treasurer, events, volunteering, history, and wildlife gurus. We welcome new trustees who are passionate about the park and are keen to give their time and skills to improve Eastville Park. To apply, please email friendsofeastvillepark@gmail.com
How are you funded?
We are funded by donations, grants, and fundraising activities organised by our lovely volunteers. We have received charitable donations collect from past festivals in Eastville Park, Love Saves The Day and Tokyo World, which have helped us to fund projects to improve the park, such the play area refurbishment.
What have you done for the park?
We created this website with the help of volunteers to help you find out about your park and enjoy it.
We support Parkwork for 1 day per week, where Joe McKenna leads a group of volunteers into the park to do work, learn skills and socialise with others. Joe’s team have repaired benches, built and installed owl boxes on the lake, sifted the play area sand, planted trees, cleared fly tipped rubbish, weeded and spruced up planting areas, and worked alongside other volunteer groups. They are local park heroes!
We arrange volunteer activities such as Young Rangers, and Good Gym visits.
We are working with the council to ensure that the upper park play area is refurbished with some of this delivered in 2023. The play improvements were installed with a combination of £108,000 Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds and £30,000 raised by the Friends of Eastville Park fundraising efforts and donations. The Multiuse Games Area was also funded through Community Infrastructure Levy funds we applied for through Bristol City Council.
Whenever possible, we fund events in the park such as Santa on the Lake 2017 and 2018. We got together with an amazing group of volunteers and build a Santa’s grotto for Santa to meet local children and bring them gifts, music, and festive fun.
Our wildlife group work with Bristol City council to try and promote wildlife in the park. They have recently worked out a schedule of grass cutting to ensure that butterflies can flourish in the meadows that run along the Frome Valley from Everest Road and Redhill Drive. Bird feeders have also been installed to support our beautiful bird populations.
We teamed up with Frenchay Christmas Tree farm to deliver Christmas trees to local residents and raise funds for our projects.
We are very lucky to have lots of keen wildlife photographers in Eastville Park so we create a calendar of some of the best photos. Local sales of the calendar have raised money for projects in the park such as new benches that were installed in 2023. Look out for the next calendar on sale from autumn in local businesses.
In October 2019 Friends of Eastville Park appeared on Gardener’s World as the presenters Flo Headlam and Joe Swift helped us create a community garden at the back of the bowing hut. It is our aim that this space will help form a community hub for everyone to enjoy and is reasonably secure from vandalism when the space is locked. To use this space or volunteer, please contact friends of Eastville Park on the gmail address below.
During the lockdowns of 2020 we applied for grants to renovate the Nissen Hut by the bowling green, turning it from tired bowling tea room into a bright and welcoming Community Hub. Renovations were completed in 2021 supporting the return of the bowling team, Community Cafe, and local community groups began to hire the space. Further grant applications enabled a Warm and Welcome space to run in the Community Hub, continuing with social spaces for the over 55s, crafting groups, and a food group happening weekly. The hub is home to the Peoples University of Fishponds, a regular Folk music group, youth groups, Friday Food Club, and wellbeing spaces. The hut is also available to hire for private parties, which helps provide an income to keep the hub running.
We are planning a Heritage Lottery Fund bid. This is likely to require a great deal of time and effort from many volunteers, and work closely with consultants to guide the process. If you would like to help us with our bid, we’d love to hear from you!
How can I join in?
If you would like to volunteer to help run an event, make a change in the park, or help fundraise, please contact us friendsofeastvillepark@gmail.com or by coming along to one of our open meetings advertised on local posters and our facebook page. You don’t have to give a lot of time, just do as much or as little as you choose – it all helps!
Ways that you can volunteer:
- a 2 hour help at our community cafe events to serve cakes and drinks
- Helping us network with all communities around Eastville Park
- Help to fix or paint something
- writing bid for funds
- designing posters and similar graphics
- ecology surveys and habitat creation
- Fundraising help – calendar photos, fundraising events and similar
- Bring your band or choir to sing at an event
- If you can spare 3-6 hours flexibly over month, have gumption and a can-do attitude – have you thought about being a trustee?
contact us at friendsofeastvillepark@gmail.com
Eastville Park 