Download the Brabyns Park Discovery Trail

In March 2009 a brand new "Brabyns Park Discovery Trail" booklet was published and made available free of charge at a variety of outlets across the borough. Unfortunately only 1,000 copies could be printed and we think that they will quickly become pretty hard to get hold of. In order to address this we are pleased to be able to make the booklet available for download on-line.

The original Brabyns Park Discovery Trail booklet was written and produced by second year pupils at Marple Ridge College. One or two copies of the old booklet are still available in the Heritage section of Marple Library. The new version has been updated and rewritten by Jo Wright of Spot-On Interpretation with the help of local historian Judith Wilshaw and Mark Whittaker of the Marple Website. Its production was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the Iron Bridge Restoration Project.

Although based on the same trail as the original booklet the new version is not just a copy and has developed into something quite different. The booklet allows you to delve into the history of the park and discover its wildlife and natural features whilst enjoying a stroll through woodland, parkland and alongside the canal and riverbank. It includes three pages of excellent colour illustrations by Jo Wright to help you identify the wildflowers, butterflies, trees and birds of Brabyns Park and features Monty the Mallard, who offers ideas for things to do along the way to keep any younger members of your group amused.

To download your own copy, click the link below and save the file to your own hard drive:

Brabyns Park Discovery Trail (pdf 4.8MB)

(You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader software installed on your computer in order to read this file.
This is a free package and most PC's have it installed - if yours doesn't, you can download the software by clicking on the box below.)

In order to reproduce a hardcopy successfully we recommend that you print the cover on a single-sided sheet of A4. If you can do it on card or thicker paper, all the better. Then print the rest of the publication odd pages first, also on A4. Leave them to dry for a while and then turn the whole lot over as a set and put them back in your printer to print the even pages on the other side. Make sure that what will be the top edge of the booklet is on the same side of the printer for both print runs. This should allow you to compile a folded A5 booklet virtually identical to the published version.