Finchampstead Village playground is getting two new castles for children to play in.
Finchampstead Village playground at Memorial Park is getting two new castles for children. Timber and building materials have appeared in the park and work is due to start soon.
Finchampstead Parish Council has hired Setter Play to build the new facility. The company recently completed a castle on Stadhampton Village Green in Oxfordshire with a similar design — that Stadhampton castle includes a tunnel, a rope vortex to climb up through, overhead walkways and a climbing wall. It should be said that Stadhampton Castle is on a larger scale.
Finchampstead’s new play area is expected to be split into two parts: The Finchampstead Hideout and the Itsy Bitsy Toddler Climber. The climbing wall is thought likely to be sited separately. The Finchampstead Hideout is expected to have only two connected towers with a turret at one end and a single slide.
Finchampstead’s Local Democracy Reporter first played on the Memorial Park playground in 1977, aged 4. Now aged 53, he travelled to Stadhampton to see the design that’s due to arrive in Finchampstead in the next few weeks.
New rubber surfacing will cover the play area to protect knees and ankles. Equipment planned includes an in-ground trampoline, a bird’s nest swing, flat seat swings, an adventure trail, a see-saw, a spinner bowl, two cradle swings similar to the one in Stadhampton, music panels, mirror panels and a springy rocker.
Warranties and aftercare: Setter Play gives local authorities a 15-year warranty on their logs (or a longer warranty if Finchampstead Parish Council negotiated differently or the logs are raised on steel feet). A two-year installers’ warranty covers faults in the first two years; after that, site visits to effect repairs are chargeable. Components are free to replace within: 5 years on rope and metal components; 5 years on wetpour rubber; 2 years on their ‘enviropave’ surfacing; 1 year on matting; 1 year on groundworks. There is a 2-year installers’ warranty on the equipment, a 1-year installers’ warranty on the surfaces, and free replacement safety caps.
Setter are expected to carry out a post-installation inspection, ready for handover, free of charge as part of the works.
Ted O'Neill, Local Democracy Reporter
