See these other pages devoted to the Recreation Ground: Friends of the Recreation Ground Green Flag award History of the Rec The Recreation Ground is the main formal recreational area in Bollington, the other being the Atax fields at Bollington Cross. Located between the Macclesfield Canal, Palmerston Street and Adlington Road, this ground provides facilities for cricket, football, tennis and bowls. While regularly maintained over many years by Macclesfield Borough Council, the quality of the Recreation Ground declined. In order to arrest this and bring about improvements to the fabric and facilities a support group was established - the Friends of the Recreation Ground. This group, led by John Kershaw, has set up a partnership with Macclesfield Borough Council, now Cheshire East Council, to manage the continued maintenance and improvement of the ground. Significant improvements have been made in 2008 to rescue the ground from this decay and it now provides a first class resource to the town recognised by a Green Flag award. The Rec, as it is known to its friends, has a great history recorded on the History of the Rec page.

Recreation Ground refurbishment

A major refurbishment has been carried out at Bollington Recreation Ground in 2008 and to celebrate this an English oak tree was planted. This was also to commemorate the Cheshire Year of Gardens '08', which was complementary to the Capital of Culture year in Liverpool.

The tree, donated by the Cheshire Landscape Trust as part of their contribution to the event, was one of only 12 such trees to be planted in the whole of Cheshire, so it was a great honour for Bollington to be chosen for such a prize.

Officiating at the planting was the Mayor of Macclesfield, Cllr. Barry Burkhill, and the Town Mayor of Bollington, Cllr. Brenda Lingard, and the arrangements were carried out by Cheshire Landscape Trust and the local Tree Warden, Mr. John Kershaw.

The previous river bridge had decayed to the point where it was not safe to use. The new one provides a stout access from the town to the playing field.

A variety of carved wood animals and other natural items have been planted through the wooded area, some with interpretation boards to help visitors identify the animals and birds they might see.

The ever popular tennis courts have been re-surfaced in two colour material and fenced. The bowling green has also been nicely fenced.

The cricketers now have better quality practice pitches surrounded by modern safety netting.

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Gardeners needed!

Enjoy your gardening?

Then why not give a little skilled time to the Recreation Ground?

Bollington Recreation Ground is now managed by the community and the Friends of the Recreation Ground provide practical support to Cheshire East Council and their Groundsmen. In 2008 this community effort resulted in Bollington Rec winning the only Green Flag Award in the district. Of course we want to retain that Green Flag, and so the Friends are working hard to maintain and improve the Recc and its facilities for the benefit of the whole community.

As part of this initiative, the Friends intend to improve some of the flower borders around the Recc.  Some of these beds have very well-established perennials and shrubs.  However, our groundsmen although committed, admit a certain level of ignorance about the upkeep of such plants.

So the Friends are inviting the local community to get involved with improving and maintaining these beds.  They are looking for people with some experience in looking after their own gardens who could be assigned specific beds to manage and tend either alongside the groundsmen and other less green fingered individuals or exclusively by themselves – whichever would be most amenable to themselves.

What a great opportunity for those gardeners looking for more space in which to enjoy their leisure time.

If you are interested in supporting the community with your gardening skill, please contact either Mark Pinches, John Kershaw or Michael Burdekin and they will be happy to give more details.