From volunteers to huge grant funders…from local businesses to the children of Chesham – these are the Love Lowndes heroes that made our new 5-11s playground happen!

There’s no doubt that Love Lowndes has been an amazing community success story. Together, we’ve raised £220,000 for Chesham’s new 5-11s playground in Lowndes Park.

Love Lowndes was created by a handful of frustrated residents who came together determined to make improvements to Lowndes Park. So much has been achieved in two short years.

We’ve created the Love Lowndes brand, raised awareness about the dire play facilities, successfully lobbied Chesham Town Council to create a Masterplan for the park, undertaken consultations, engaged and involved the diverse Chesham community, organised lots of events, attended countless fundraisers and written multiple successful grant applications. And the result?

A beautiful new inclusive, accessible, challenging and inspiring destination playground in the green heart of Chesham!

Along the way, the core Love Lowndes team has been supported by various people, organisations and businesses that have turned our dream into a reality.
Thanks and recognition must go to right places. So, below is a list of the heroes of the Love Lowndes story:

The dream team!

The Love Lowndes committee

The core team of Kate Hutchinson, Isabelle Hatfield, Anna Elliott and Claire Wyatt have been the driving force behind Love Lowndes for over two years. They’ve built the brand, attended every meeting, masterminded and delivered every event and strategy, managed communications and social media, written all the funding applications (in collaboration with CTC) and countless other tasks that have created the new playground. It’s been a labour of love and taken so many hours of work. This core team was supported by a wider group of amazing volunteers who’ve provided advice and practical support along the way. Special thanks to Wilford Augustus, Rachael Matthews, Sam Wignall and Sophie Baron.

Chesham Town Council

Love Lowndes has worked alongside CTC from the beginning. They are the owners of Lowndes Park and responsible for its upkeep and development. CTC have provided £35,500 of our budget and supported us in so many ways. They’ve helped with events, administrative support and writing the grant applications. Special mention to Kathryn Graves and Louise Hayday, without whom this would never have happened.

Friends of Lowndes Park

FoLP is a Chesham based voluntary group that created the Lowndes Park Masterplan. This ‘vision’ document has been the template Love Lowndes used as a starting point for the new 5-11s playground. It will be used for all future improvements to the park. FoLP also coordinated the very first meeting of the core team that went on to became Love Lowndes – the fundraising arm of FoLP. They have also provided all the banking services throughout the project.

Our Volunteers

So many people, businesses and organisations have given voluntary support to Love Lowndes. Here they are – in no particular order!

• Claire Vickers – the wonderful graphic designer who created our logo.
• Louise Boyer – another graphic designer who created our banners and leaflets.
• SignX Graphics – Jon Whithear printed our vinyl banners and pull-up promotional boards.
• Middleton Mann and Matt Writtle – providing amazing images of the park for our communications and grant applications.
• The team at the Cottonmill and Community Bike Centre, also known as Ver @ Play, who advised us so well at the beginning of our journey.
• Alex and Darren – who did all the photography at the Pumpkin Parade.
• Toby Friedner and Mark Rann – for coordinating the Stand Up for Love Lowndes Comedy event at The Elgiva and the children’s comedy show with The Noise Next Door.
• Alex Horne – MC at the Stand Up for Love Lowndes show.
• Laura Silverstone from The Nature Club – running free crafts and activities at the Pumpkin Parade and running the Bug Hotel activity for our art competition winners.
• Mr Alexandre from Chartridge Combined School who helped co-ordinate the other schools of Chesham in the two Mufti Days.
• Trekkers Bar – thank you to Alex for giving us space to fundraise during the Clocktober Fest and other events.
• Joe Callender and Sophie Baron for event support.
• Your Chesham – Cliff and Mick have been invaluable supporters of Love Lowndes and given us so much space to communicate with the Chesham Community.
• Candice Channing Williams and Elliot for spending the day filming our promo video and Andy Turvey for the amazing editing.
• The Rocket Oven – for providing food at the Pumpkin Parade and generously donating the profit
• Men in Sheds – for building our beautiful Bug Hotel.
• The following groups who helped us plant all the landscaped areas:
• • Chesham Vale Gardeners Society
  • Chesham in Bloom
  • Heritage House
  • Friends of Lowndes Park – gardening working party
  • David and Lucas
  • A group of Chesham Town Council Councillors

Our fundraisers

Lots of local organisation and residents offered support by running events and finding ingenious ways to raise money for us. Special thanks must go to:

• All the infant and primary schools of Chesham – and their children! The schools took part in two amazing Love Lowndes themed mufti days and also supported our art competition.
  • Chartridge Combined School
  • Waterside Primary Academy
  • Elmtree School & Nursery
  • Brushwood Junior School
  • Ivingswood Academy
  • Hawridge & Cholesbury CE School
  • Newtown School
  • Our Ladies Catholic Primary School
  • Thomas Harding Junior School
• Karen van Oostrum of the Damon Singers who made collections at their Christmas concerts
• Samantha Slator who collected donations at a Christmas Swish event at The Elgiva with Sustainable Chesham
• Caroline Winter and the Squirrel Scouts who raised money doing a litter pick
• PaulineMytton, Brown Owl of 1st Chartridge Brownies who raised funds by doing a ‘Silly’ Olympics
• Ray Williams from JPS Stationers and Orbit Press who donated a proportion of profits from the 2024 Chesham Calendar
• Waj Fayyaz for fundraised for us the at the 2024 Chesham Cricket Event
• Kate and Mark Rann for making us a their ‘charity’ partner for the inaugural Chesham Fringe
• Nileshi Parbat and the rest of the Chesham Prep PTA for generously fundraising for us
• Jaqui who organised a sponsored swim at the Gym & Swim
• The Elgiva for their amazing Panto collections
• Wilford Augustus, Chesham Mayor 2023-2024, who walked from London to Chesham

Our Phase 1 Sponsors and Donors

Love Lowndes was the volunteer group responsible for fundraising for the new playground. The project was started with £35,000 from Chesham Town Council. This came from something called CIL money.  The Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) is a charge which can be levied by local authorities on new developments in their area. So, when housing or development is done, a levy is charged to the building company and that money must be spent on local infrastructure or improvements.

Love Lowndes successfully applied for a further £500 grant from Chesham Town Council later in the project too.

Over a two-year period, the Love Lowndes volunteers raised an astonishing £49,500! They achieved this by staging events, working with local schools, co-ordinating fundraisers and engaging the local community. They also sourced local corporate sponsorship.

Love Lowndes worked in collaboration with Chesham Town Council to write applications to the grant bodies and secured a further £125,000 for the project (see the pink section in the image below).

Buckinghamshire Council gave £10,000 a succesful application to the Chesham and Villages Community Board.

Phase 1 of our playground renovation and improvement is the 5-11s playground. It was made possible thanks to all the amazing people who donated to our Crowdfunder and because of the incredible support from following organisations:

• The Veolia Environmental Trust with money from the Landfill Communities Fund #TheLCF
• The Douglas McMinn Centre Charity
• Chesham Town Council
• The National Lottery Community Fund
• Chesham and Villages Community Board
• Rothschild Foundation

And we are indebted to our amazing local sponsors:

Platinum:

• The Entertainer
• Silverson Machines
• Mencap

Gold:

• Chesham Prep School

Silver:

• Ash Wills
• Perspective (Home Counties) Ltd.

The following businesses/groups also donated:

• Murrays Accounting
• Butterfly Print
• The Rocket Oven
• United Reform Church
• Chesham Neighbourhood Group via Sandra Holland

Plus, of course, everyone who donated to the Crowdfunder or who signed up to Easy Fundraising.

I hope you agree this list of the volunteers, sponsors, fundraisers, funders and all-round heroes responsible for making Love Lowndes a success is heart-warming to read.

But, there’s more!

Yep, that’s right. Even though the Love Lowndes team would like nothing more than to down-tools and have a well-deserved rest, we’re hungry for more!

Phase 2 of the playground renovation is already underway.

We’re fundraising to replace and renew the 0-4s playground (inside the hedge), replace the zipwire and add some natural scramble play equipment at the top of the park.

As ever, you can donate via the Crowdfunder and get involved by emailing lovelowndes@gmail.com. They really need more volunteers!!