A long-awaited addition to Spondon's open spaces is now in place at Dale Road Park.
Spondon's Village Improvement Committee (VIC), with support from the Spondon Neighbourhood Board and Derby City Council's Parks Department, have been working on numerous improvements to the park over the past few years.
During this time, much planning has been involved in funding, designing and building a toposcope for the park. After a huge amount of work by all involved, the toposcope is now in place and looks absolutely fantastic.
Sited at the top of the park where the view stretches out for miles ahead across five counties, the toposcope features a display highlighting certain landmarks and their distance from the park. These include the local landmarks of St Werburgh's Church and the Saxon stone in its grounds along with other key places such as Elvaston Castle, East Midlands Airport, Breedon on the Hill Church and Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station.
The toposcope project has involved Rolls Royce trainees with support from Derby University's third year graphic design students and Groundwork Derbyshire. A shortlist of 5 designs was selected and the views of the public were sought as to their preference. Pupils from local primary schools were also involved in providing designs for special bricks which form part of the base which circle the main structure.
An “official unveiling” is planned for later in the year and there are also plans to add an additional pathway from existing paths to the toposcope.