Work to revitalise a Kendal park has been recognised by the town’s civic society.
South Lakeland District Council and the volunteers of the Friends of Noble’s Rest have been presented with the society’s Design Award for 2019 – postponed due to the pandemic- in recognition of their efforts to restore and enhance Noble’s Rest in Kendal, also known as Maude’s Meadow.
The award is presented annually to those buildings or developments that “make a significant contribution” to the quality of Kendal’s built environment. Previous winners include Kendal Rugby Club, Stricklandgate House and Gillinggate Health Centre.
Trevor Hughes, executive council member of Kendal Civic Society, said: “Noble’s Rest has long been a quiet haven of peace and tranquillity but was in need of restoration. The drainage was in a bad state of repair and it was becoming very overgrown.
“SLDC and the Friends of Noble’s Rest have worked long and hard (particularly during the Covid situation) to restore it to its former glory and it is a worthy winner of the Civic Society Design Award.”
In 2016 that the newly formed Friends of Noble’s Rest joined SLDC and Kendal Town Council to draw up a master plan for updating and improving accessibility at Noble’s Rest, together with the neighbouring Town View Field and Swine Parrock, after consulting widely with local groups. The plan was designed to ensure the park’s mature trees, grass and wildflower meadows would continue to offer “a quiet oasis” for visitors as well as increasing biodiversity by enhancing wildlife habitats.
With funding from the authorities, the past five or six years have seen volunteers make a valuable contribution to the park in addition to the routine work carried out by SLDC’s landscape contractors.
The Friends of Noble’s Rest have freely given their time to plant wildflowers and bog-friendly plants such as iris, willow and dogwood; prune and replace mature trees; tend the flowerbeds and even build rabbit fences.
Although the Friends had to rest their trowels and spades at the height of COVID-19, they continued to hold virtual meetings during lockdown with support from SLDC’s Locality Team Leader Polly Straker, who has been closely involved in bringing the Noble’s Rest Master Plan to fruition as well as bringing together key players on a long-awaited project in summer 2020 – the completion of a scheme to showcase natural flood management techniques at Town View Field.
John Wright, chair of the Friends of Noble’s Rest, said: “The Friends were very pleased to receive the Design Award from Kendal Civic Society. The award should be shared with all the other local people who have contributed to the improvements in a much-loved park over the last six years.”
Noble’s Rest was dedicated as “a sanctuary of rest for the aged and as a playground for small children” by Mary Ellen Noble in 1929 in memory of her husband, Kendal surgeon Samuel Clarke Noble.
SLDC continues to work in partnership with the Friends of Noble’s Rest, KTC and Kendal Civic Society to improve the park. Future projects are to include a new pathway into Noble’s Rest from Library Road, to be named the Tarbuck Entrance in memory of the late Rob Tarbuck, a local architect and long-standing member of Kendal Civic Society’s Executive Committee, whose idea the entrance was.
