Refugee Week 2024

June 2024

Heritage Open Day

September 2024

Once again the Friends of Waterloo Park took part in the Heritage Open Days event. An exhibition of the interesting history of the park.

We Love Nature

August 2024

At the heart of the festival were hand-stitched and woven textiles inspired by a seasonal cycle of poems written by Dorothy Amery. There were plenty of opportunities for visitors to get involved in creative activities including: poetry workshops, story telling, plant and flower printmaking, face painting.

Bees for beginners

August 2024

Bugs and Beasts

August 2024

Arts and Craft Event

May 2024

Fabulous creations were made at our nature themed craft event.

Introduction to recording wildflowers on your patch

May 2024

This was an introductory session to learn about the different wildflowers and plant families, and how to identify and record them.

Easter Craft Event

April 2024

Fabulous creations were made at our nature themed Easter craft event.

Get Crafty

February 2024

Carols in the Park

December 2023

Christmas Events

November - December 2023

Heritage Open Days

September 2023

Once again the Friends of Waterloo Park took part in the Heritage Open Days event. As well as our main exhibition at the pavilion we had an exhibition at the old bowling pavilion about bowling in the park, providing an opportunity to reminisce about playing bowls and look at the vintage photos on view.
Also, new this year - a display of the work being done to establish a new wild flower meadow at Waterloo Park.
In the upstairs room of the main pavilion we staged an exhibition which included some of the tools used to build the park and facsimiles of documents dating back to when Waterloo Park was first planned.
The main exhibition was about the park's history, how it came to be designed and built in the 1930s, and then restored in the 1990s.
In addition we had an exhibition based on the colourful dyes that can be extracted from the plants grown in the park's dye beds, with craft activities for youngsters relating to dyeing and weaving.
Live music was played from the balcony, courtesy of The Tatsters.

Kite Flying

September 2023

Music in Waterloo Park

July-Sept 2023

Half Term Fun

February 2023

This half term, we had lots of fun free activities, including Kite flying and a Fairy Fun day.

Christmas Crafts

December 2022

Fabulous creations were made at our Christmas craft events.

View photos from the event

Heritage Open Days

September 2022

Once again the Friends of Waterloo Park took part in the Heritage Open Days event. As well as our main exhibition at the pavilion we had an exhibition at the old bowling pavilion about bowling in the park, providing an opportunity to reminisce about playing bowls and look at the vintage photos on view.
Also, new this year - a display of the work being done to establish a new wild flower meadow at Waterloo Park.
In the upstairs room of the main pavilion we staged an exhibition which included some of the tools used to build the park and facsimiles of documents dating back to when Waterloo Park was first planned.
The main exhibition was about the park's history, how it came to be designed and built in the 1930s, and then restored in the 1990s.
In addition we had an exhibition based on the colourful dyes that can be extracted from the plants grown in the park's dye beds, with craft activities for youngsters relating to dyeing and weaving.
Live music was played from the balcony, courtesy of The Tatsters.

View photos from the event

The Norwich Science Festival

July 2022

Norwich Science Festival took over Waterloo Park in Norwich. This free event, sponsored by Pensthorpe, included bee-themed walkabout acts, bug-inspired crafting, face painting, and a special guest appearance from CBeebies star, vet and author Jess French.
There were also stands from Norfolk Wildlife Trust, Pensthorpe, RSPB, Norfolk Museums Service, and much much more.

The Norwich City Concert Band

The bandstand in Waterloo Park is a wonderful setting for playing music. Purpose built in 1933, generations have enjoyed this entertainment, sitting on the surrounding benches, having tea in the café and picnics on the grass. Many people in the neighbourhood had the pleasure of hearing the music in their own gardens. The Norwich City Concert Band were glad of the opportunity to play in a setting they had enjoyed many times before.

May 2022
The band’s performance on 15th May was much appreciated by an audience around 200 people of all ages. On a sunny Sunday they were surrounded by people on the benches, on the grass and at the cafe.

August 2022
Even more people came and enjoyed the music on Sunday 21st August, another lovely day. The Feed Cafe provided The Gin Bowlers, a jazz band from Bristol playing 1920s music with an impressive singer. On Bank Holiday Monday, 29th August, the King Edward Macclesfield Concert Band played for free on their Norfolk tour 2022, with many people enjoying their wonderful varied music, a toe-tapping treat for all. The Feed provided free refreshments for this and the next band, much appreciated by the players, able to wet their whistles!

September 2022
The Friends of Waterloo Park arranged for the Norwich City Concert Band to perform again on Sunday 25th September.

December 2022
A fantastic performance of seasonal music from the Norwich City Concert Band.

View photos from the event

Big Garden Birdwatch

January 2022

Once again the Friends of Waterloo Park took part in this year’s Big Garden Bird Watch which took place on the 29th January 2022. Together with the RSPB we had a very successful day with families joining in with the various activities on offer. The last time we took part in this event was before the pandemic in early 2020 so it was great to be able to participate once again. As well as counting the birds the children could try their hand at making bird collages, bird feeders and kebabs to feed the birds at home in their own gardens. Members from the local Mens’ Sheds came along with bird boxes the had made. A good day was had by all even though it was so windy some of our gazebos blew away!

View photos from the event

Heritage Open Days

September 2021

The Friends took part in the Nationwide Heritage Open Days Event again this year. It was great to be able to use the upstairs room of the pavilion with stunning views of the park and beyond.

We staged an Exhibition of the history of the park which featured the building of the park after WW1, designed by Captain Sandys-Winsch, using the labour of unemployed men and showed the development and changes in the park with archive photographs from its opening in 1933 to the present day.

New this year - History of Bowling in the park. This was very well attended with many people stopping to reminisce about their stories of playing bowls and looking at the vintage photos on view.

Also, because of the rich history of weaving and dyeing in the local area we presented an exhibition based on dyes extracted from plants grown in our dye beds. We organised various children's activities relating to dyeing and weaving.

We gave guided tree walks featuring some of the more prominent trees in the park and visitors enjoyed live music from the balcony courtesy of the Tatsters.

View photos from the event

Sunflower planting

June 2021

On weekdays, the flower beds to the south of Waterloo Park pavilion are normally quiet. One June day, however, they were absolutely buzzing with activity. Over 120 children from Angel Road Infant School have grown enough sunflowers from seed to fill two large flower beds and they visited recently to plant them in the park.

The children also took the chance to look at some of the other plants grown nearby, by Friends of Waterloo Park. Some children are hoping that, if the Friends are able to run family events this year, they will be able to craft with some of the yarns dyed from the plants in the Dyers’ Garden.

Several children have already let the Friends know that they have been back to the park with their families to see how their sunflowers are doing. Luckily, they have been well watered by the rain we have had lately. Their teacher says that the children regularly check on their plants as they pass through the park.

The Friends showed the children pictures of sunflowers grown in the park by local children, two years ago. They are surprised and delighted that the little seeds they planted may soon grow into plants which are taller than they are.

View photos from the event

Big Garden Birdwatch

January 2020

Together with volunteers from the RSPB we hosted the Big Garden Birdwatch again this year. We set up bird feeders in early January to entice the birds into a particular area of the park so that on the day the children would to be able to see the birds that came to feed. The children also enjoyed making bird feeders made from recycled bottes, apple and seed bird feeders and ‘bird kebabs’ which were made by threading fruit and cheese onto a wire circle. We hope the birds in their own gardens enjoyed the treat. It was another very successful event.

View photos from the event

Christmas Musical Event

December 2019

We put on a Christmas musical event in the café on the Saturday before Christmas. We are very lucky that some of our members are involved with musical groups and they gave their time freely to entertain the visitors to the café. We had lovely Christmas music from Waterloo Strings which was followed by folk music from the Green Willow Buskers.

Another successful event.

View photos from the event

Heritage Open Day

September 2019

Heritage Open Days. The Friends group took part in this national event and opened the upstairs room and balcony of the pavilion so the public could enjoy the magnificent view. We staged an exhibition on the history of Waterloo Park. This involved a lot of research for the volunteers and some good teamwork to prepare the room for the exhibition. It was very well attended by the public who enjoyed our folk group who played on the veranda in the sunshine. We also ran a tree walk with some of our members taking visitors on a tree walk around the park identifying some of the more interesting trees.

View photos from the event

Our Super Hero World

August 2019

As part of the Norwich Science Festival we joined with the Forum Science Team to put on ‘Our Super Hero World’. This was another very successful event which included fascinating activities with a science theme. The Friends Group had their own stall with quizzes, kite flying, making parachutes and a herb identification competition.

View photos from the event

Go Wild in Waterloo

June 2019

To celebrate the Norfolk Wildlife Trust’s 30 Days Wild we held a free family event ‘Go Wild in Waterloo’. It was a great day out and we had activities such as bark rubbing, making masks from clay, learning how to tell the age of trees and tree identification. Families learned about making compost, examining snails and creating pictures from natural materials. Children also enjoyed planting sunflower seedlings which had been grown from seed by our members. We followed the progress of the sunflowers right through the summer and encouraged the children to have their photo taken with the sunflowers and post them on our Facebook page. We ran a competition for the best photo and the winner was presented with their prize at our Heritage Open Day in September. We left the sunflowers for the birds and mice to enjoy in the winter. Children enjoyed the sunflowers so much we will do this again in 2020.

View photos from the event

Biggest Garden Bird Watch

January 2019

Together with the RSPB we hosted the ‘Biggest Garden Bird Watch’. The RSPB set up bird feeders in early January to entice the birds into a particular area of the park and on the day set up an impromptu ‘hide’ with binoculars for the children to be able to see the birds that came to feed. The children also enjoyed making bird feeders with sunflower seeds and lard encrusted pine cones or by threading fruit onto a wire circle. We hope the birds in their own gardens enjoyed the treat. It was a very successful event.

View photos from the event

Norfolk Day

July 2018

We joined forces with Britannia Enterprises to host a free event to celebrate Norfolk Day with Afternoon Tea, various activities for children and live music.

View photos from the event

Art and Photographic Competition

May 2018

The Friends of Waterloo Park had an Art and Photographic Competition. This coincided with our Inaugural meeting and the prizes were presented at this meeting.

View photos from the event