Royal Wedding party fever sweeps Poole (From Bournemouth Echo)

Royal Wedding party fever sweeps Poole

8:00am Saturday 30th April 2011 in News By Darren Slade , Chief Reporter

Celebrations at Parr Road in Ashley Cross. Picture: Corin Messer.

THOUSANDS turned out for Royal Wedding parties in Poole. At Ashley Cross, attendance at the community’s festivities was estimated at around 2,500.

And there were plans to use the event as springboard for a new initiative to bring the whole of Parkstone together.

Organisers had received 700 replies to invitations but believed the final attendance far outstripped that.

Many people watched the wedding on TV at local night spot Mr Kyps before heading outside for the festivities.

View our Royal Wedding celebrations gallery

Click the link at the bottom of this story

The organisers had already been planning to launch a Parkstone Community Association when the date of Royal Wedding was announced, so used the event as a way of drumming up support.

There was dancing around the maypole by pupils from nearby Buckholme Towers School, a street performer juggling knives, a fancy dress competition and face painting, as well as a fire engine and an armoured vehicle on display.

The Rev Roger Bayldon, retired priest at St Peter’s Church, who is behind the community association drive, said: “It’s been a true community event.

“This is a very vibrant area. It’s the ‘in’ place in Poole at the moment. We wanted to make everybody feel that this was part of a vibrant community and therefore there was a need for an association.”

He said the association would aim to bring together the affluent area of Ashley Cross and Lower Parkstone with Upper Parkstone. It would use the newly refurbished Parkstone Park as a focal point.

Iain Robertson, head teacher at Buckholme Towers, said: “One of the lovely things about this is that the church is at the centre of it.”

He praised the response “not just in people turning up today but in the way people supported it”.

“The number of people who came out of their homes to start sweeping the street last night,” he said.

Nearby, in Parkstone’s Alexandra Road, around 170 people turned out for a lunch and a traditional programme of fun – including what was claimed to be the world’s biggest game of musical chairs.

Many people found themselves chatting to neighbours for the first time. “We asked everybody to wear a name badge with their first name and the number of their house,” said organiser the Rev Tim Gomm.

“It’s been absolutely wonderful.”

At Torbay Road, Parkstone, 60-70 residents enjoyed the festivities, which including games and a contest to guess the number of balloons in a car.

At the residential home Regency Manor, in Blair Avenue, 16 residents and the staff enjoyed a lunch and a host of activities. “Everyone enjoyed it,” said acting senior Charlotte Willment.

Meanwhile, at Elizabeth House in Dolbery Road South, Alderney, residents were treated as though they were at a wedding.

“We had a wedding cake made by the friend of a carer and the staff all dressed as if attending a wedding,” said care team manager Andrea Whitmarsh.