An Oldham green space has received a musical upgrade after lottery funding meant musical sculptures could be installed.

The Firwood and District Residents’ Association helped bring the chimes to the green space, located between Partridge Way and Laurel Avenue.

The new equipment was installed in the green space situated between the canal and allotments behind Mills Hill Primary School on the morning of Friday, January 17.

Each instrument produces a different note and is operated by hand.

Graham Taylor, aged 76, is part of the Firwood and District Residents’ Association – which worked to get the funding for the instruments.

He said: “We always keep our eyes and ears open, and something came up with the National Lottery where they were looking for community projects as part of the Platinum Jubilee.

“So we applied for it, we had to jump through hoops a bit, but we got funding for these musical sculptures, we called it, we got funding for a tree to commemorate the Queen’s 70th year, and we got funding for a nature trail.”

Word seems to have spread fast, as Graham has seen children having fun with the new instruments, which have been put in after other improvements, such as tree planting.

The Oldham Times: Five-year-old Isla Wolfendale playing with the instrumentFive-year-old Isla Wolfendale playing with the instrument (Image: Graham Taylor)

Graham said: “We put the chimes in on Friday, all the other stuff was the past five or six months – they look great.

“You’ve only got to stand there and there’s people walking their dogs, children there – now it’s half term, but they’re there at the weekends. We have a children’s activity area.”

Now the group are hoping to get funding for a biodiversity pond on the site.

“There’s a stream that runs through the wetland, we had people down from the Lancashire Wildlife Trust who said they could scoop out an area, put a lining in and a bit of a jetty so kids can do pond dipping.

“That would be wonderful if we get that, but we’re just waiting.”