#LoveLowndes - Fund the Fun is a community group tasked with raising £150k+ to build a new playground in Chesham's Lowndes Park.

We are a group of volunteers from Chesham. Love Lowndes is a Friends of Lowndes Park project in partnership with Chesham Town Council.

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Sponsor the new playground

We are currently looking for local businesses and individuals who would like to be a key sponsor. We will have an interpretation board in the new playground celebrating our 'heroes' with their logos and names. There are other benefits too.

We have a sponsorship document that details all the benefits and reasons to be involved. 

Contact our Chair, Claire Wyatt, on [email protected] if you'd like to find out more.

Other ways YOU can help!

There are so many ways you can get involved. 

• Making a donation - just click DONATE above
• Raise FREE MONEY via Easy Fundraising - sign up and shop online as usual and the brand sends us money. Winner!
• Organise your own sponsored event or fundraising activity. Click the Start Fundraising button and set up your own webpage (linked to ours and our bank account) and all funds go to us.

The story so far 

You can read a full write up of our events and achievements on the Friends of Lowndes Park website, but in summary… 

We’re well on our way to our target! 

So far we’ve raised just over £76,000!

After a few months of planning and preparation including naming our group, creating logos and setting up the Crowdfunder, we finally launched at the Chesham School’s Carnival in June. Word started to spread via our leaflets, banners and social media campaigns and we gained a lovely, loyal following. We then took stands at Hat’s Off, Peace in the Park and Clocktober Fest – huge thanks to Trekkers Bar for making us their charity partners. It was great to see so many people engaging with our message and donations flooding in.  

Our autumn season of events were a huge success. Our afternoon kids’ comedy show with the Noise Next Door raised the roof (and a lot of cash!) and the evening Stand-Up for Love Lowndes show was a near sell-out. On a single day we raised just over £5,000! Huge thanks again to Mark Rann, Toby Friedner, Alex Horne and all the acts for making it happen. 

The Pumpkin Parade was a magical moment in the park – with calls for it to become an annual community event! It was swiftly followed by an adorable afternoon back the Elgiva for a screening of Spookley the Square Pumpkin. Both events had a huge turnout. Check out the Bucks Free Press article about it. 

Oh, and of course we made our fantastic Love Lowndes promo film – watch it at the top of this page! 

As well as all the hard work from the main Love Lowndes team, we’ve been thrilled by how many people and organisations have contacted us to offer their support through their own events or ways to raise funds. 

• My Marvellous Monster created a bespoke piece of art for our Pumpkin Parade and auctioned it for us. 
• The schools of Chesham came together for a Mufti day in January. The children were encouraged to come to school dressed in colourful clothes and raised over £3,800! Special thanks to Mr Alexandre, Headteacher at Chartridge Combined School for coordinating all the schools for us.  
• The Damon Singers are donating a proportion of the proceeds of the Christmas Carol concert to us.
• The Rocket Oven gave all profits from the food they sold at the Pumpkin Parade to Love Lowndes.
• JPS Stationers are donating a proportion of the profits from the Chesham 2024 calendar.
• Chesham Moor Gym and Swim ran an Aquathon at the open air pool for us.
• A Swishing event in association with Sustainable Chesham will be held at the Elgiva with us at the charity partner. 
• And Wilford Augustus, Chesham’s Mayor, has made us one of his main charities and has run many events so far with more to come.

And, of course, we've been applying to various grant bodies and organisations to make our way to that £150k total.

We're thrilled to have successfully applied to the Rothschild Foundation for a £5k grant and we've secured a £10k grant from the Chesham and Villages Community Board.

Heartfelt thanks to everyone who’s helped us on the journey so far. Whether that be donation, attending an event, helping us, donating their time or skills or simply spreading the word – we couldn’t do it without you.  

About our project

Lowndes Park is Chesham's main green space. It is the green heart of Chesham. Help is make it fit for the next 100 years of enjoyment.

But why?

The existing play facilities are worn out, unwelcoming, inaccessible and not positioned in ideal locations. The playground isn’t inclusive or welcoming and doesn’t represent the aspirations of the town and people. 

Your children deserve better!

Just look at it...

Together we can build something they will love and that we can all be proud of.

But we CAN'T do it without YOUR support.

A wholesale re-think and re-design of the park is being undertaken. The ‘Masterplan’ will be based on consultations with the Chesham communities that use the park as well as input from experts in park design and use. The new playground will be the first phase of delivering the Masterplan – a vision for another 100 years of park life!

How much?!?

Yeah, we know! £150,000 is a lot of money. But trust us, it doesn't go far. 30% of a playpark budget goes straight into the flooring and surfaces. Then you need a fence, bins, benches and signage. Oh, and don't forget design costs!

Ooof. Suddenly your budget for building a dream park doesn't seem so grand. Add to that the average cost of a fairly simple climbing frame can be £30k.

So, we've set a target of £150k at a minimum. We'd love more. 

The more we raise, the more creative and ambitious we can be with our design.

We've already raised money! And have plans to find more.

We're thrilled to have the support of Chesham Town Council. They  have pledged £35,000 towards the project. We're also pursuing some large grant funds which will see us well on the way towards our target.

We also have big events planned - see above for the latest info.

The remainder needs to be raised by the community. You can see various ways to donate and contribute on the menu on the right. Please help!

Our mission

We will...

• provide a new, imaginative and physically challenging play experience for the children and young people of Chesham and surrounding towns and villages
• create an inspiring play space that will please, excite, challenge and stimulate the children’s imagination
• promote positive attitudes to children and young people in the community through play opportunities and providing a safe environment for play as part of our approach to a sustainable community
• reflect Chesham’s heritage and enhance the look and feel of the park
• recognise the importance of community life for children.

Creative Brief

The new play space in Lowndes Park should work in harmony with the exceptional natural surroundings of the Chiltern Hills Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and reflect the historic town of Chesham. We would like to see a design that works with nature, makes the most of the existing landscape and blends with the rest of the park’s facilities.  

We are inspired by our history and landscape.

What kind of playground could we have?

Through various consultations via the Friends of Lowndes Park, the Chesham Town Council, the Masterplan design team and through the work Love Lowndes is doing, we have a wealth of knowledge from the Chesham community about the kind of play space we need to create.

What we don't want is a conventional playground. 

The more we raise, the more creative and ambitious we can be with our design.

Sure, everyone wants a swing, a slide and a roundabout, but there are ways to include those essential elements into a much more creative and exciting play space.

And finally...

Thank you! For reading this, for donating, for coming to an event, for sharing this page, for spreading the word, for supporting us in any and all the ways you can. This is a community project FOR the community. You are our heroes.

Special thank yous...

To Claire Vickers for the amazing logo, Middleton Man for the beautiful drone photography and Matt Writtle for the stunning photos. We couldn't do this without volunteers like you.

FAQs

To find our more about the project and read our FAQ's, please visit the Friends of Lowndes Park Playground project page.

All the legal stuff

Love Lowndes is a Friends of Lowndes Park project.

Friends of Lowndes Park is committed to protecting your privacy. When you interact with us by phone, mail, in person or online, we sometimes receive personal information about you.

As a small community group focused on working with our members and supporters, we are exempt from registering with the Information Commissioner’s Office. We are working according to the General Data Protection Regulation.

See our full privacy statement here.

The Elgiva