Back in April 2023, the Friends group received an email from Rose Cullen. She told us that her mother, Nora, had lived close to the park for over 50 years, during which time, she had greatly enjoyed visiting the park - see the photos. Nora had recently died, and the family wanted to sponsor a bench in her memory and also raise money for ‘the flowering of Fog Lane Park’ through donations instead of flowers at the funeral.

The Friends group were delighted that the family had chosen to raise money for the park and were absolutely astounded at the final total of £1427. We decided to call this the Nora Cullen Memorial Fund. Since then, the gardening group have been using the money to buy tools and plants for the existing and new flowerbeds that we have taken on.

This year (2025), the gardening group have decided to take over what used to be the wildflower bed near the Fog Lane entrance (this can be seen in the background of the photo of Nora below). This wildflower bed had been very attractive in the past, but required a huge amount of maintenance, which couldn’t be managed by our small gardening group of 6-8 volunteers. It was decided that this year, the central bed would be turned over to perennials and shrubs, similar to the other large bed at this end of the park. At the moment, the bed has been dug over and filled with 800 daffodil bulbs provided by Manchester City Council, which should give a lovely show in the spring. Once they have finished flowering, the group intend to use more of the funds to fully plant the bed with shrubs and perennials which are attractive to butterflies and insects.

We have decided to call the new bed ‘The Nora Cullen Memorial Bed’ as huge thank you to the Cullen family for their generosity and support.