Preservation project: Lloyd Park’s ancient oak is fenced off. It’s sentinel saplings are not doing so well, however, after a summer of heatwaves that left their mark on the park
THAT’S WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR: The long, dry summer had an impact on many of the borough’s parks and open spaces. KEN TOWL meets the Friends of Lloyd Park to hear about the work they are doing in the middle of a climate emergency
Long way down: the children’s playground is set in an old chalk pit
I climbed over the fence. I wanted to get a good photo of the “unique feature”, as Owen Williams had described it: a children’s slide whose highest point is at ground level and whose lowest is at the bottom of a deep crater.
The metal fence surrounds the steep-sided crater – thought to be a disused chalk pit, rather than a bomb crater from the 1940s – and you are supposed to enter the playground by gates situated at the flatter parts of the perimeter.
But I wanted my photograph, and at a little after nine on a rainy weekday morning, there was no one else around. So I started to descend. Almost immediately I began to slide on the wet clay surface. I fell on my backside and continued to slide, almost to the bottom. The fence is there for a reason.
A few minutes earlier, Williams, the chair of the Friends of Lloyd Park, had been describing the highlights of the children’s playground and the Friends’ role in keeping it maintained. It is a matter of demographics. Few of the committee have children of the age that would enjoy a trip to the playground, so if anything is damaged, they are unlikely to be aware of it.
Williams asks that, should anyone see anything that needs fixing, they let the Friends know, so that they can sort it out. I suggest that, if you are thinking about entering the crater, you use the steps or the actual slide.
Lloyd Park has one of the more recent “Friends of” groups, formed in 2018 out of residents’ and park-users’ concern for the upkeep and maintenance of Croydon’s largest park. As with so many of the borough’s 127 parks and green spaces, Lloyd Park has been short of funding from our council of late.
Autumn leaves: this time of year shows off the park’s trees
Lloyd Park is named after newspaper magnate Frank Lloyd, whose daughter donated the land to Croydon Council in her father’s memory following his death in 1927.
It is a big, popular park with many Friends, and the venue for many events, including the start and finish of the annual Vanguard Marathon each August, two ParkRuns every weekend (juniors on a Sunday), football and rugby, plus fun fairs and disc golf (more of that later), and in the past, when the council had some money, events like the Mela and country fairs and concerts.
Today, much of the maintenance is carried out by TCV, The Conservation Volunteers, who have a base in the woods just off Coombe Lane, and who regularly organise work parties across the borough’s parklands.
Williams is, however, looking for someone with organisational skills, someone who can organise others to do some of the jobs like litter-picking, that plug the gaps in provision by the council or TCV. The Friends of Lloyd Park has its annual meeting coming up (in the park café from 5.30pm on November 11), while details of the Friends’ committee and activities can be found on its website.
Frisbee whizz: the park’s disc golf course attracts visitors from across the south-east
After my conversation with Williams in the cosy Lloyd Park Café (tea £1.70, very friendly staff, worth a visit, 5*), I ventured into the rain to explore. After falling down the pit and covering myself in white clay, I hobbled around the park to check out the other various, presumably safer, attractions.
I managed to avoid being hit by a plastic disc as I traversed the disc golf course. Apparently it is very popular, and I did pass a group of men carrying brightly coloured plastic Frisbee-like objects.
I found the TCV-maintained pond, which was only slightly damper than the rest of the park. The pond has always been seasonal, but the excessive hot summer dried it out completely this year. The undergrowth around it has undergone its annual, autumn trim and cut-back by TCV.
“We would like to improve the area with appropriate planting and plan to have discussions over the next year with the council, TCV and the Campaign to Preserve Rural England as to how to achieve this,” Williams said..
Sports centre: the park hosts numerous events, including ParkRun and the Surrey county cross-country championships
I enjoyed the autumnal colours of the trees. This is not New England, famed for its brightly coloured leaves; it is Old England, content to be a little less brash, but beautiful nonetheless. Lloyd Park’s old Oak, set away from the tree line, now has to be fenced off to preserve it from damage from climbers and summer barbecues.
The oak stands defiant and stark in the Croydon drizzle, surrounded by 12 equidistant oak saplings, like the points on a clockface. The steps taken seem to have improved the health of the ancient oak, though the drought and heatwaves have taken a toll, and the sun-parched saplings do not look like they will survive the winter. There was a watering contract in place, but the signs now are that this was ineffective. “We will have to see how many of them survived,” Williams said.
Williams and the Friends are keeping an eye on them, and many of the other trees in the park that give it the feel of rolling farmland that it was until 100 years ago, rather than a formal recreation ground.
Dried out: the Friends of Lloyd Park are monitoring the pond and the stream that feeds it
The long hot summer is over and the risk to the trees of fire is reduced, but Williams was quite adamant that visitors to the park should still not light barbecues. This had been a concern during the very dry season. On the whole, Williams said, the vast majority of visitors to the park were supportive and much more likely to report what he referred to as “selfish behaviour” than indulge in it.
The great thing about the park, that people appreciate, said Williams, was that “you’re in Croydon but you’re in the countryside”. The Friends are waiting on improved “no barbecue” signage from the council.
So, if you haven’t been to this Croydon gem for a while, go and have a look as the autumn turns its leaves to red and gold, and maybe have something to eat or drink in the very reasonable café just by the tram stop.
I have to admit to being a fan. I am not sitting on the fence. Or, from now on, climbing over it.
More Friends:Saved for the nation, Selsdon Wood conserved by its Friends
More Friends: Woodland wonderland that’s hidden behind Selsdon’s suburbia
More Friends: Thanks to the magic of Merlin there’s more to see in Croham Hurst
More Friends: Friends on a mission in Selhurst’s neglected Whitehorse Rec
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