Rewilding Stockport Town Centre
Background
In 2023/24, Groundwork Greater Manchester worked alongside Stockport Council to revamp Suffragette Square – a small community space in the heart of Stockport Town Centre. With help from local volunteers, the area was tidied, flower beds re-planted and artwork and new signage was created and installed. The space was formally ‘re-opened’ to the public in March 2024, with the Mayor of Stockport in attendance.
We were successful in our application for further funding from the Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF), and have continued to work with Stockport Council, local businesses and volunteers, rewilding 3 more areas around Stockport town centre and creating a wildlife trail for people to follow and discover local nature.
Below is a map of the rewilding sites:
The Lost Words / Losing Our Natural World
The Lost Words book was created after natural words like Acorn, Bluebell and Kingfisher started to be removed from a popular childrens dictionary because they weren’t being used enough. It then grew into a wider body of work to protest about the loss of the natural world around us, and to celebrate the wildlife we share our lives with.
Inspired by The Lost Words, the Wild About Stockport project set out to bring nature back to Stockport for the benefit of people using these spaces and our local wildlife, whilst teaching people about the importance of rewilding in urban environments and the wellbeing benefits of being outside through sustainable craft activities and practical volunteering sessions.
Suffragette Square
Following on from our initial revamp of this space, we’ve continued to invite volunteers back to Suffragette Square to help maintain the site, and take part in a variety of nature-themed craft activities, bulb planting and celebration events.
A trellis was also added onto the Elsie Plant artwork, installed earlier in 2024. The trellis was added to encourage plants to grow up the structure and create a more aesthetically pleasing display behind the existing artwork.
Pocket Park
The main feature of this small space is a large flower bed, which was poorly maintained. The team were joined by volunteers to cut back and removed overgrown plants, and replanted it with a variety of native plants including Salvia, a vibrant purple flower and Hylotelephium Spectabile, which blooms in the Autumn, providing a much-needed source of nectar later in the year.
Local artist Russ Meehan, aka Qubek, created a new mural for the space inspired by his childhood exploring the local woodlands in Stockport. The four sites are also connected by a bug trail, created by Phantasmagoria.
St Peter’s Square
In November, we invited local residents, schools, businesses and community groups to help us with rewilding St Peter’s Square by planting a variety of flowering bulbs. A whopping 47,000 bulbs were planted to bring a splash of colour to the space, and provide food for pollinating insects throughout the Spring and Summer.
Over time, the bulbs will naturalize and spread, creating beautiful displays that return year after year. They’ve become well-adapted to survive the UK’s cold, damp winters, making them a perfect addition for brightening up St Peter’s Square.
Chestergate Street
Chestergate Street is lined with flower beds which were completely overgrown, making the area look untidy. After consulting with residents, the team started work on the space by cutting back and removing the overgrown vegetation, including Himalayan Balsam – an Invasive Non-Native Species.
We were joined by volunteers and local artist The Wheel Trim Shady, who was eager to help us cut back the plants blocking his art display which was installed the previous year.
Perennial plant species such as Alchemilla mollis and Anemone ‘Honorine Jobert’ have been included in the planting, as they’re able to tolerate shade along with producing flowers and providing a much-needed food source for pollinating insects. They’re also low growing, so the artwork installed on the wall will no longer be blocked.
Celebrating the new green spaces
In March, our team hosted a celebration event at St Peters Square, with Phantasmagoria coming along to showcase their ‘bug trail’ statues. 40 local people came along, took part in nature crafts and heard about the work completed on green spaces around Stockport, as well as future planting activities for volunteers to get involved with in the coming months.
The event was also attended by several volunteers, with one regular volunteer saying that the project had inspired her to start planting some vegetable seeds in her own garden!
This project has been made possible thanks to funding from the UK Government’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund
