Friends of Eaton Park

08/10/2026

06/10/2026

One of our favourite autumn views too!

📸 WINNING PHOTO 11 OF 12!
Here’s number eleven of our 12 fantastic I Love Eaton winners. Don’t miss out on the chance to have them all in your home — calendars are just £4 and will be available at the Eaton Arts Fair on 10th October.
If this is your winning photograph, feel free to let everyone know by leaving a comment below! 👇

06/10/2026

Great to see the familiar outline of Eaton Park on this map of 'Areas of Particular Importance for Biodiversity' (in green) and 'Areas that Could Become of Importance to Biodiversity' (hatched pink).

See how close the park is to the Yare Valley itself and what a large area of this part of the city is nature-rich. There is work to be done but what a start!

This mapping is the work of Norfolk and Suffolk Nature Recovery Partnership.

The Yare Valley Meadow Makers
Norfolk Wildlife Trust
Friends of Earlham Cemetery, Norwich
Norwich City Council

01/10/2026

Eaton Park Volunteer Gardeners
Thursday 1st October

Eaton Park was looking beautiful today: autumn colours just starting, blue skies and sunshine. A perfect morning for gardening.

We had 14 volunteers. Some opted to work on the bandstand and lily-pond beds; others planted daffodil bulbs on the slopes above the western carpark. This was a much tougher job than it sounds. We had almost 400 bulbs to plant into rock-hard soil! Really well done, everyone, for persevering. Hopefully, we’ll get some rain in the coming weeks and will get a good display next spring. One of the varieties is called ‘February Gold’ so they should flower early next year.

Thank you to Riverside Bulbs (https://riversidebulbs.co.uk/) who provided a specially quick delivery, so that we had the bulbs in time for today. The bulbs were excellent quality, too.

Our next session will be on Thursday November 5th 10-12. If you’d like to get involved, contact us at [email protected]

14/09/2026

Message from the railway...

We're planning spooky happenings at the railway for All Hallows Eve,
Keep an eye out on ndsme.org/halloween where more details will be posted as they are known.

04/09/2026

Our Tree Walk this year took place in early autumn - a chance to see trees in a different light from our usual May walk. The walk was led by Dr Gerry Barnes who has lived in Eaton for 40 years and worked in Norfolk for over fifty years.

Gerry is Honorary Research Fellow at UEA and has written books on trees, ancient woodlands, orchards, ancient trees and hedgerows.

Readers will know Eaton Park has the most wonderful range of trees. Gerry introduced us to hornbeams, oaks, ash, several types of oaks and limes and many more. Drawing on a life in trees he took us from pre-historic times to traditional uses, weaving in the names of towns and pubs that reveal local trees and their history.

It was fascinating. We were lucky to enjoy a warm and at times golden evening.

Our next walk is a Bat Walk with Norfolk Bat Group on Thursday 17 September. Meet at the Bandstand at 7.15pm. Events are free and all are welcome. Check out details of all coming events on our website https://friendsofeatonpark.co.uk/events-activities/

03/09/2026

Eaton Park Volunteer Gardeners
Thursday September 3rd

Another enjoyable and productive gardening session this morning. Thank you to the 15 volunteers for being such a great team and getting such a lot done!

We weeded and tidied the bandstand beds. We used a border fork to open up holes in the paths at the back of the quadrant beds. Hopefully, this will help drainage when the winter rains come.

Two volunteers tended the planters down at the Community Centre. They replaced a dead Alchemilla, tidied and watered the containers ….and discovered a crop of mushrooms, to boot!

Another volunteer tackled the lily pond beds which are looking very dried out and sad at the moment. A passer-by asked for the lavender cuttings and went away, happily, with a bagful!

We also tackled the lavender in the boating lake, and café garden, beds, while our specialist compost team (aka Team Louise) sorted out the bins so that there was room for today’s debris. They also watered the existing compost which was very dry. There was a lovely aroma of lavender and coffee drifting over the compost bins!

We had a big gathering afterwards in the café garden for some well-earned refreshments and chat.

Our next session will be on October 1st. Hopefully, we’ll have some bulbs to plant then. If you'd like to get involved, email us at [email protected]

30/08/2026

Message from the railway...
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Summer is drawing to a close and the season of mists and mellow fruitfulness approaches.
This bank holiday weekend we are running regular trains on Sunday and on Monday we host
the Lord Mayor for the annual Civic Charity Day. This year the charity is "Mind The Gap"
You can find more about them at https://mindthegapmusic.org/. and they will have a stall at the station.
Come along and see the Lord Mayor open the proceedings at 1100 on Monday.
Regular fares £2/£1 and Day Passes available £6/|£4 and we are pleased to announce that
our accessible car, No7, is back in service too, so now everybody can get a ride, including your four-legged best friends.

Looking ahead, we are planning something special for All Hallows' Eve. Look out for this.