Bingley's Myrtle Park

Between Bingley's main street and the river is a pleasant green space known as Myrtle Park, which has lots of amenities including a bandstand, café, children's play area, skateboard park and a large bottom meadow used for picnics, dog walking and various local events. For a long time Bingley Agricultural Show was held there but, since Covid, that has not taken place. They did, however, use the park for the finale of the Bradford City of Culture 2025 celebrations. 

The crocuses were blooming (this was a week or so ago) and there was a bank of daffodils in bud, which are probably flowering by now. It's cared for by the local Council and 'Friends of Myrtle Park' put in many volunteer hours in the gardens and staffing the visitor hub, which provides activities for children and an information point. I've several friends who are heavily involved and I think they should all be very proud of their efforts, as the park looks lovely. 

They've added more 'focal points' in recent years, including a couple of rather lovely, whimsical, carved tree stumps that seem to entrance children. 

And so, back to the River Aire. There's a footbridge across and then it was a pleasant walk in the sunshine, past the allotments, past the cricket field, tennis courts and the golf course, up Beckfoot Lane to where I'd parked my car. It was a delightful walk.

River path

From Beckfoot Bridge I took the footpath along the river that leads round towards Myrtle Park. There are lovely views across the park and up into the woodland around Bingley St Ives. You wouldn't know you were only half a mile away from Bingley town centre.

There's a point where you look down and glimpse water between the trees. This isn't the river (which lies beyond). There are a couple of small lakes that at one time I think were fishing lakes, though I'm not sure they are used now. It's all quite attractive, though there are few clear views through fences and trees. 

Eventually I arrived at Ireland Bridge, which leads across the river to the oldest part of Bingley around the church. 

16 x 10

I suppose we all have our quirks (our 'little ways' as my daughter calls them), like what mug we like to use for our morning cuppa or which is our 'favourite' gas ring on the stove! We rarely talk about them, but I guess we all have some. One of mine, I realised, is that when it comes to my photos, I very rarely use a 'standard' sizing. I tend to crop them to suit the image itself. That's fine, of course, until you want to enter a competition or print one, when standard aspect ratios tend to be required. 

Occasionally I have found it stimulating to choose beforehand what I'm going to do - like when I went to Grassington lead mines and chose only to take square photos. It made me see things differently and I was pleased with the results. 

The photos here were all taken along the riverside in Bingley, on a recent walk. I've chosen to crop them all to a 16 x10 aspect ratio, just because I think it suits the scenes. It makes for neater looking blog posts too - but I'm not too fussed about that most of the time! 

These are surprisingly tranquil scenes, I think you will agree, given that Bingley high street is only a couple of minutes walk from here. In the top photo, looking north upstream, you can perhaps just see the mill chimney of the Damart factory. Damart, manufacturer of thermal underwear (worn, I gather, by the late Princess Diana as well as me!) has had its UK HQ here since 1967. The second photo is Bingley's Myrtle Park, which has a beautiful open space alongside the river, as well as a more formal park on the upper level nearer the town centre. There are still a few leaves hanging on on some of our trees. They won't last much longer now the weather has turned colder. 

I was a little puzzled by the swan gliding along (below), apparently in the trees well above the river - until I realised that there is a fishing lake hidden in the woods

Leaning over Ireland Bridge, there is a pleasant view of the weir and the backs of the very old properties clustered around the church on Bingley's Old Main Street. 

 

Beauty in the ordinary

Many of our towns, villages, churches and parks contain war memorials, often dating from 'The Great War', WWI (which wasn't really great at all) and some updated with information after WWII. The rather ornate cross, above, is the memorial in Bingley's Myrtle Park, attractively underplanted with colourful begonias. (Says she knowledgeably! I'm not 100% certain of my plant ID skills... ) I understand the cross itself was first erected, on this site, about 1922 and is still the focus of a memorial ceremony on Remembrance Day each year. When they were first installed, these monuments must have provided some sense of comfort to those bereaved in the wars. Now we tend to walk right past them, so ordinary and familiar they are to us. Nevertheless if we stop and pause to look and reflect, there is beauty of a kind there. 

A memorial of a different kind, the new rose arbour has been installed, a walkway in memory of a former Bingley resident. It has been placed where, historically, there used to be a rose arbour, long since disappeared (and where it delightfully frames the war memorial). The five arches have been planted with a pink, scented, climbing rose which should, in time, create a romantic and beautiful 'tunnel of love'.  

We often look for autumn colour in our woodlands, gardens and parks and yet there is also beauty to be found in the ordinary... Here, in a line of trees that screens the town from the busy bypass that runs, in a cutting, right through it. 

Nearby, close to the end of its flowering season and yet still a nice little splash of colour to be enjoyed, bright and bee-friendly annuals have been planted in front of some social housing blocks, instead of the more usual bedding plants

Myrtle Park trees

I had to pop to Aldi in Bingley to do some shopping. They have some very good 'own brand' items and I usually stock up on some of the bigger bulk buys there too, so I tend to go about once a month. It's cheaper than most of its rivals, though as their fresh fruit and veg is often packed in bags that are too big for one person living alone, I mostly get fresh stuff from Asda or Sainsbury's.   

It was lovely weather.  We've enjoyed a few days of what might be described as 'an Indian summer', with above average temperatures. While I was in Bingley, I decided to have a walk around Myrtle Park, to see if the trees there were showing any good colour. It is still quite muted, but there are a couple of small acers by the walled garden which were glowing nicely in the sunshine. (I'd seen a photo on social media of these two trees that rendered them both absolutely bright red! The reality when I visited was a lot more muted and nuanced. I guess the social media post was a photo from a previous year - or perhaps it had been heavily processed, in the way people often seem to love to do. I think you can mostly hardly improve on nature.) 

 

Gazing at the moon

This magical fairy tree house has been carved from a tree stump in Bingley's Myrtle Park by sculptor Michael Burgess. It was commissioned by Friends of Myrtle Park, thanks to the generosity of Neil Butcher, whose late wife Catherine (née Pierson) was brought up in Bingley and loved the park. She was a headteacher who had a passion for outdoor learning and play activities for children. She also loved hares, so this tree carving seems like an ideal tribute in her memory. I'm sure Bingley's children will love it. 

Playing on...

Here's another park with a bandstand. This is Myrtle Park in Bingley. The bandstand is a good deal older than the one in Roberts Park (where the original had been demolished and was replaced a few years ago). I think this one is Edwardian, apparently manufactured in a foundry in Glasgow, before being installed in the park in 1913. It is still sometimes used for brass band concerts, though it has been subject to a few incidents of vandalism in recent months. 

A colour fix

I've really missed my regular trips to RHS Harlow Carr Gardens whilst we've been locked down. The gardens have been open but, as they're in North Yorkshire, it doesn't count as 'local' for me, so I've stayed away. Happily some colour is starting to creep back into our neighbourhood parks and gardens too. This is Bingley's Myrtle Park again, with a few early blossom trees in flower. The gardens are cared for largely by a very active 'Friends' group, who do a wonderful job. 

The low walls are covered in winter flowering bell heather, quite different from the paler ling heather we see on our moors in summer. The colours are wonderfully vibrant and they provide an important nectar source for bees and other insects coming out of hibernation. 

I'm quite fond of this plant: lungwort (pulmonaria) - it's much prettier than its name suggests. They like shady, damp conditions. 

These are varieties of primulas - they remind me of lollipops. 

Even last autumn's seed heads (sedum, I think) looked textural and sculptural against an old brick wall. 

 

Field of Hope

A grassy bank in Bingley's Myrtle Park is currently resplendent with 'a host of golden daffodils' and they were indeed 'fluttering and dancing in the breeze', just as William Wordsworth described in his famous poem. The display is called 'Field of Hope'. The bulbs were planted some years ago by pupils of the nearby Myrtle Park Primary School to commemorate the cancer care charity Marie Curie, whose emblem is a daffodil.  

Daffodils are always a welcome sight after a long winter, though I do find they often look better in reality than photographs would suggest. Somehow they are not the most obliging of flowers for a camera - so leggy and the heads seem to face in random directions. 

 Wishing everyone a happy Easter weekend.