Community effort to transform area into nature reserve

The formal gardens of the historic Hall Lee Bank Park have long disappeared but now a massive community effort is being organised to give the Park a new life.

The park should be declared an official nature reserve by June, although work is expected to carry on until the end of the decade.

Mr Roy Swannick, who used work there in the 1970s said Hall Lee was once a thriving park.

"It is heartbreaking to see how it has been neglected over the past 20 years. It opened in 1910 and it had formal gardens, a waterfall a wishing well, a monkey puzzle tree and a band stand. On Sundays it used to be crowded with people trying to get in."

Mr Swannick, of Bolton Road, Westhoughton, who is a member of the Westhoughton Organic Growers who have plots at the park, said motorbikers and drug users had added to the destruction of the park in recent years.

"We want it to be as popular now as it was all those years ago," he said.

The Growers will be organising an open day at the park in June and Mr Swannick is writing a booklet to show the history of Hall Lee. "I am appealing for anyone who has any memorabilia, old photographs or letters, anything, to loan them to us."

The Growers are just one of several organisations who are helping with the nature reserve.

Ben Hargreaves from Lancashire Wildlife Trust said: "We have got £24,000 of Heritage Lottery fund and £2,000 from the town council.

"It is a big community effort with groups from the Youth Drop in Centre, the Friends of Hall Lee Bank Park, the Mayor of Westhoughton, and community workers all getting together.

" There are remnants left of the old park and at the bottom of the park there are ancient woodland habitats going back to the 1600s.

" We have made a good start by improving the access and footpaths and cleaned up the brook. Our aim is to make it Bolton's next local nature reserve."

He added that the area attracted deer and woodpeckers.

Anyone who can help Mr Swannick should contact him on 01942 818374.