Our Projects
Our aim is to encourage and sustain a sense of pride in Stokesley and to that end we commit to several projects in the town every year.
One of our latest projects was the creation of a new community garden at the entrance to the Showfield car park.
This project was made possible through a grant from the Co-op's Community Fund and with assistance from Co-op contractors Ground Force, who provided labour and machinery to clear the tired old shrubs from the site.
After a lot of hard work by volunteers the site has now been completely cleared and dug over, and replanting is well underway. A beautiful new path and seating area have been created by local landscaper David Weighell.
You can see photographs of the community garden project here.
During the week approaching 2 June 2012, SPIOTA volunteers were busy making preparations for the official opening of the new Ziggurat.
They attended Rainbow Nurseries to select and plant up the troughs which would be used to populate the Ziggurat. At the crack of dawn on Saturday 2 June they were up and working, to swap out the old troughs in the Ziggurat, and replace them with the new ones. Much thought was expended on details, such as whether to have each trough in a single colour (red, white, or blue), or whether to have them mixed. The latter was chosen, and it proved to be a successful choice. Fortunately the weather, although not exactly summery, at least remained dry, and a quite substantial crowd turned up to celebrate the opening.
We have various floral displays throughout the town. The tubs and beds are planted twice per year in keeping with the season.
In the past our displays have attracted awards from Britain in Bloom and Yorkshire in Bloom.
There is a River Warden who patrols the river for general clearance of the detritus deposited by unthinking ones besides removing dead branches, dead ducks, supermarket trolleys etc. There is also an annual river clean by volunteers. You can see pictures of the river clean here.
The Association has planted daffodils and crocuses in many grass verges around the town and there is an on-going aim to provide more as time and money permit. In 1998 a project was carried out in collaboration with the Marie Curie Foundation as part of their daffodil program. To see photographs click here.
The war memorial on West Green commemorates the residents of Stokesley who were killed in the First World War and the Second World War.
Once or twice a year, we dispatch a team to tidy up the paving and surrounds of the war memorial and to replant the troughs and beds. For example, the work done in 2010 by a small group of volunteers working for less than an hour, resulted in a greatly improved memorial.
In 2006 the war memorial was renovated. It was professionally jet-sprayed and a group of volunteers cleaned up the site. The Parish Council funded the cleaning and the materials for the revamp.
The new Ziggurat was a very large project which commenced when the old ziggurat had started to display signs of ageing.
Every Stokesley Fair week, the old Ziggurat had a rather bumpy ride from and to storage and this had rather stressed the old display. The idea of a new Ziggurat was conceived about 2009, and came to fruition over the next few years. It was implemented on 20 May 2012. The flowers on the new Ziggurat, as for those on the old one, are sponsored by Rainbow Nurseries. The total cost of the Ziggurat was around £10,000.
The original Ziggurat
A ziggurat is a type of temple or tower originally built by the people of Mesopotamia, with a pyramid shape comprising receding terraces or levels.
The Stokesley Ziggurat in Market Square was designed and built by SPIOTA members with financial support from the Jack Brunton Trust for the materials. Its planting was sponsored by Rainbow Nurseries.
From time to time we arrange a litter pick. Sometimes these are targeted at a particular eyesore, and sometimes these are wide ranging.
Our litter picks are usually conducted by the "Thursday Gang", and we sometimes try to involve the community. A notable example was Saturday 12 June 2010. This was wide ranging and involved people from the community. This was successful, and made a difference.
To celebrate the centenary of Girlguiding UK in 2010, and in conjunction with local members of Girlguiding, we created a floral display of the centenary Girlguiding logo. The planting container was built by Henry Cowles, and the display was designed, arranged, and built by Linda and David Purnell, and Trish and Fred Lee.
This makeover project focused on a triangle of land on North Road opposite the library.
This area had been full of weeds and was a real eyesore. SPIOTA members and friends dug it over completely and replanted it with colourful shrubs and bulbs making it an attractive area all the year round on this busy corner.