The Friends of The Wick Country Park

Introduction

Welcome to the Home Page of our Website!

Courtesy of the links to the left, you can read all about the Park, the 'Friends' group, and find details of the events organised by the 'Friends' in collaboration with the Park Ranger. Through the 'Wick Country Park' link you will find directions and a map of the Park, and you can find notes about the history and development of the Park, the management of the Park, the children's play area, the park's plants and animals, fishing in the lake, and much, much more. Other links will take you to details about the events we organise - most of which are absolutely free - plus details about our volunteer group - The Friends of the Wick Country Park. If there is something specific you are interested in, but cannot find, please use the 'search this site' link at the top of the list of Links.

CORONAVIRUS UPDATE - February 9th 2021

Before visiting the Wick Country Park, please check the latest Borough-wide advice promulgated by Basildon Council, which you can find here.

Under the current 'Lockdown', which has been in force since January 5th 2021, The Wick Country Park remains open to visitors for the purpose of exercise - but the national current government instructions strictly apply. You are only allowed to meet with a maximum of ONE person from a different household, and you must maintain 'Social Distancing'. You are allowed to walk with any number of people who are part of your own household, that is ALL are living under the same roof. Please remember to respect the safety of others, and take heed of government instructions to 'socially distance' yourself from other users. Please understand that other Park users are not being rude if they appear to be avoiding you: they are simply abiding by the rules, which are there for the safety of everyone - including you!

Our planned events for both 2020 and 2021 have, unfortunately, been decimated by the Coronavirus pandemic. Please keep an eye out for updates to this announcement when prospects for re-starting our activities improve. In particular, the January Jaunt / AGM for 2021, has been deferred until circumstances change.

Basildon Borough Council Parks and Countryside Services

The Wick Country Park Park is owned by Basildon Borough Council and is managed by the Parks and Countryside Services Department. To report an issue concerning mis-use of the Park, or to enquire about hiring facilities at the Park, please contact the Countryside Officer on 01268 533333 (option 5). Please note: the Friends group has no authority over the usage of the Park and therefore we cannot deal directly with any such requests

'Hot' News......

Criminal Act of Cruelty to Wildlife at the Park, February 2021

It is with huge sadness and annoyance that we record that an act of mindless cruelty has been reported at the Park; under the Wildlife and Countryside Act, this event is classifiable as a criminal act, and has therefore been reported to Essex Police. It has also been reported in The Echo, and it has 'gone viral' on local social media platforms.

WARNING: by clicking on this link you will be confronted by a vivid account of the incident, including a potentially distressing full colour image of a live wild Canada Goose in obvious considerable distress.

Thank you, Wickford Wombles

The Wickford Wombles have teamed up with the Council and have secured a number of cherry trees to be planted along the driveway to the Park. Please click here for full details

Nature Notes new updates - posted January 17th 2021

Throughout 2020, starting on February 19th, local ornithologist Martin Singleton has been carrying out regular visits to the Park to observe and record the wildlife. Please click on the Nature Notes link in the side menu where you can find individual reports on some of these visits, and NEW there is an annual report that aggregates all of the individual ones (including a few not otherwise published on this site).

The latest National Lockdown, effective from January 5th 2021, has greatly restricted the scope for these walks, and, though a monthly walk is still taking place, they are no longer open to the public. However, Martin is providing a report on his monthly sightings, and these reports can be accessed through the 'Nature Notes' link to the left.

For more Information about local wildlife, please visit the Wickford Wildlife Society website.

The Skylark Regeneration Project

There are many references to skylarks on this website - for a start, our logo is based on this irresistible and intriguing bird, and it is also provides the title of our quarterly newsletter. Back in the early days of the Wick Country Park, Skylarks were common flying high in the sky, but now they have sadly gone.

Our current project is the regeneration of an area in the Park to encourage the Skylarks back by planting Teasels. A substantial area within the Park was sown in early April. Some rain would help to promote germination!

The teasel is a tall plant and is identified by a cone-like flower head with flowers that are tiny and purple, and then the seed heads turn brown in winter. Teasels are visited by bees when in flower and by birds when in seed. Importantly, the plants also provide essential cover for ground-nesting birds, such as skylarks. The Skylark plot was prepared prepared early in 2020, and a substantial area within the Park was sown in early April. Some rain would help to promote germination!

We will keep you informed of progress - hopefully pictorially when the Teasels flower!

New page - Volunteering

Please visit this new page to read about ways in which you can become involved with the Friends group

Register to receive our Newsletter

Some great news!!!! There will be no charge to register your email address with the membership secretary, so that you can be kept up-to-date about events and other developments at the Park, through our regular newsletter called Skylarks, as well as the occasional e-mail. In normal times, Skylarks is published quarterly, but while Coronavirus restrictions apply, the frequency has been reduced to twice a year. Please see our membership page for more details about registration. Back issues of Skylarks can be viewed through the 'On-Line Archive' link to the left.

Anti-Litter campaign - "Take-5"

Leaving litter on the banks of the lake, or, even worse. in the Lake, gets all Anglers a very bad reputation, and recently has been the cause of several complaints by Park visitors. Accordingly, the Angling Trust has recently (September 2020) launched a new campaign. known as the Anglers Against Litter Campaign, details of which can be found here All Anglers at the Park should follow these guidelines on every visit, please.

Past Events

Please click on the picture links below, which will take you to reports and pictures from the various events listed.

Kites & Classic Car Display - Sunday September 17th 2017

Skylarks 3K race, Wednesday July 26th 2017

January Jaunt & AGM Sunday 15th January 2017

On-line support while you visit the Park

If you have a smart-phone when you visit the Park, you can now carry a map with you - please click or tap here to see the map and the accompanying notes.

General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) - May 25th 2018

The new GDPR regulations, effective from May 25th 2018, require us to make a 'Data Policy' statement available to all of our members. Please click here to access the policy. Please see the 'Why not Join us?' link to the left for details about membership.

Litter at the Park

Most visitors to the Park do as we all would hope they would do - take any rubbish or recycling generated while visiting the Park back home with them and to dispose of properly. It is a tiny minority of extremely thoughtless and lazy individuals who spoil the Park for everyone else.

From time-to-time there is an organised 'litter blitz', as a result of which bags and bags of rubbish are often collected. One local resident, out of the kindness of her heart, often fills a bag in her own time. Earlier in 2019, the Wickford Wombles had a cleaning session. But none of these very generouas donations of time would be necessary if that tiny minority of thoughtless visitors could learn to be more caring about the Park! We would like to thank those individuals who generously give their time to clear up after others, often selflessly braving adverse weather. The net effect is a beautiful and relaxing environment that can be enjoyed by all visitors - humans, other mammals, birds, insects, etc.

These pictures show the 'proceeds' of a major blitz held in February 2018: bottles in the lake, rubbish thrown in the bushes - and even a discarded fishing reel!

FoWCP Picture

Here are our youngest - and also less young - helpers with some of the bags of collected rubbish.

FoWCP Picture

The aerial video of the Park!

In February 2016, Keith Savill, having got the appropriate permissions, kindly took a second video of the Park. Please see the link in the list to the left!

The On-line Archive

Please visit the the on-line archive, through which all the editions from 1 to current of our Skylarks Newsletter can be viewed. Have a browse through them for a fascinating insight into the Friends' perspective as to what has been happening at the Wick Country Park since 2002! And if you would like to go even further back in time, then please note that the on-line archive, also includes the complete set of eight editions of The Wick Country Park News. These newsletters, which were published by the Countryside Division of Basildon Council, chart the progress of the development of the Park, spanning the years 2000 to 2005. Editions 1, 2, 3 and 5 all include a map of what it was thought the Park would look eventually like when the work was finished. The Park today is fairly close to the vision first presented in 2000, the main divergence being that the building originally described as the "Education and Information Building" is usually referred to by its shorthand name - The Pavilion - and it is now leased to a Commercial Pre-School Nursery.