The Friends of Longsight Park are transforming the beauty spot and wildlife haven blighted by vandalism

Unusual and striking trees can be found in the arboretum, with part of the park classed as a site of scientific interest.

And no this description does not refer to the Lake District or some other National Park ­— rather this beauty and wildlife spot is situated right in the heart of Harwood.

For there is much more to Longsight Park than the headlines of vandalism and arson committed by gangs of youths in recent weeks.

In fact thanks to The Friends of Longsight Park, the open green space has undergone huge improvements to ensure everyone ­— whatever their age ­— can enjoy the benefits of this beauty spot.

Jane Wilcock and a band of volunteers formed The Friends of Longsight Park in 2014, after Alderman and retired councillor Walter Hall suggested the idea a few years previously.

Now they are busy digging ­— sometimes into their own pockets ­— campaigning, building, cleaning and raising money to ensure the park becomes a major attraction for people ­— and wildlife.

On Sunday, the volunteers donned their gloves and grabbed their litter pickers as part of Keep Britain Tidy Great Britain Spring Clean.

Dr Jane Wilcock said: "We want people to get the bus to this park, we don't want a park that is just about manageable, we want a park people want to go to.

"We have a constitution in which we state everybody should be able to use the park."

And the keen gardener knew immediately that more than gardening was required to transform the park.

"After the meeting I came home to my husband and said I would join a friends group because I like gardening, but no one set it up.

"I wandered around the park and was incensed, there was a muddy path, no one wanted to sit on the benches.

"There were people unable to access the park properly before, we are still not there yet but it is a lot better now."

Immediately, the group contacted the council and was told there was no money, but undeterred they continued to campaign and lobby, which paid off.

And now the path from the car park into the park was restored in 2016, allowing people of all abilities to be able to enjoy a walk into and around part of it.

"There was a path, but you could not use it if you had a disability, it couldn't be used even when it was dry," said Jane

The volunteers paid for benches, put up a notice board and have devised three routes around the park for visitors to enjoy.

A flower bed was repaired and raised at the entrance and within the park, with bulbs and herbs planted. Every year the volunteers plant 300 daffodils and have put in a plum tree.

"It was just grass, there was nothing, this path had been really overgrown. Once a year we cut it back.

"So we now have these three walks, and what we want is for people to go round them, partly for health, but partly because it looks good enough.”

Jane added: "Nothing had been done to maintain the benches so we got the benches and got a little bench on the side, it had only been in a month and some kids threw lighter fuel over it and burnt it."

Just a few days ago, children kicked over a decorative planter which contained tulip bulbs about to flower, on another bed which had been restored, but Jane said"at least they haven't broken it".

Jane said: "The friends have been very good, but people have said that we have paid our council tax and don’t think we should be paying twice and they are right, they shouldn’t.

"But then you can wait a decade and still nothing is going to happen, so you either make a choice that you want something to improve or you just leave it, let it get rundown so nobody can use it.

"At the moment we have a justgiving site and have £325 on that but we are looking for £10,000 so we have miles to go."

The Friends say that Harwood misses out on funding and grants because it is considered more well-off but the friends are being more noticed by the council."

Any work the group does, making it vandal proof is a top priority ­— sign posts marking the walking routes have been hacked with knives for example.

"When we first started we did get some people saying' I feel quite upset about this' and why are we doing it, because it happens again," said Jane, "Now the first rule of any volunteering is to assume you are going to incrementally make changes and improvements, if you are going to take it personally you are not going to be able to do it.

“It has never looked so good ­— so actually big changes did happen. But it’s difficult because once things have improved people forget what it looked like before."

The group has together contributed £6,000 for improvements, not to mention the man hours they have put in.

Old Beech trees which were chopped down have been made into decorative benches and into stunning animal sculptures including a fox and kingfisher.

"We would like to do one or two sculptures a year because they degenerate, so as one goes there is another," said Jane.

The group is eager to improve the play area ­—which was badly damaged by youths ­— giving it a lick of paint, bringing in new equipment ­— because today's children are playing on the equipment their parents played on as youngsters. The new piece, if the money is found would be in metal, because as Jane says " we are aware some people have a problem with burning stuff down".

The friends uncovered Longsight Park's hidden secret ­— after clearing away the brambles.

"Nobody knew there was an arboretum here. I said to the arborist do we make it like a lawn which is very formal or do we leave it informal for the animals and bit more shelter. So we have gone for a half way ­— have access to look but we have still got an ability for fox and deer to get something to eat," said Jane.

Highlights include the Coastal Red Wood and Brewers Weeping Spruce ­— with all trees labelled. There are plans to plant more trees, though there is a risk they could be burned down.

"We have lost some unusual trees," said Jane, "Yet when these children are older and have kids they will want their kids to come here, how stupid is that."

She added: "We want a proper arboretum notice board a really big one, that is vandal proof and lockable and we can put up educational material up for the children."

The Millennium Wood has been transformed into an area where people can now walk and future plans are to plant blackberry and other such shrubs

The group ­— which has been supported by Lancashire Wildlife Trust, Fast Signs and Viridor as well as other bodies ­— has secured £6,000 funding, but have to raise £2,000 as part of the bid to improve.

Ideally, the group would like all the footpaths restored which would mean people across Harwood could access if from different points, rather than some parts becoming completely inaccessible.

"If we were to get £10,000 we could do the infrastructure of the park, people could sit down they could walk, they would have more information about the park and we just hope it wouldn’t be vandalised," said Jane, "we get great feedback from people and we can only think of one person who has said the council should be doing this."

Commenting on the vandalism Jane said: "They need to get a silent drone to catch the kids doing it so they can charge their parents. We just want the money back for what they have done so we are not having to spend our money on repairs but are spending our money spend on improvements.

“If the parents had to pay for it, then the children wouldn’t do it."

Jane said parks are a lifeline for society.

"There is a lot of evidence on the benefit of green spaces on mental and physical health and for social life, especially as people get older and may start to feel isolated.

"Bolton is friendly and the people are lovely but people need a space to talk in do and coming into a park is an opportunity for people to do that.”

She added: “We say that you should be able to sit anywhere in this park and it should be romantic even if you are on your own ­— you should feel peaceful and that it is lovely."