Welcome to the website of the Friends of Lake Meadows Billericay
An independent local charity, with volunteers working in partnership with Basildon Borough Council, Billericay Town Council for the benefit of the Billericay community. We help to care for the park, to promote its benefits, improve its facilities and encourage conservation and wildlife.
Autumn Colours
Lake Meadows can look beautiful at this time of year with the trees taking on their Autumn Colours.
Trees
Trees are considered to be the lungs of the earth and with climate change are one of the vital things to help combat its effects. At Lake Meadows we have a valuable resource in the variety of trees in the centre of the urban envirinment.
A big Thank you
The Committee of the Friends would like to thank our team of gardeners who turn out every week whatever the weather to do their best at keeping all the garden areas looking good.. A special thank you is also given to Richard for his four weeks work renovating our Wizard and Dragon. Many noticed the Wizard's new red hat.
Photography Competition - 2023
The competition closed at the end of Halloween and the judging will take place in the next few weeks. We are hoping to have our usual exhibition in the Library early next year.
Remember that the 2024 Competition will run from January 1st
The grasses and rockery area by the lake
The grasses have provided an interesting foreground to the Lake during the summer with the splashes of colour provided by the Californian poppies and verbena.
As winter comes around they will continue to be of interest with their continual movement in the wind.
The Gardening Volunteers
The Friends of Lake Meadows volunteer gardeners meet every Tuesday till December at 9:15am.
We have a group of about 25 volunteers and get between 18 and 20 each week. There are plenty of areas to look after. As well as the main garden area we look after the rhododendron bed, the Garden of the Child, The grasses and rockery area, the cornus beds at the eastern end of the lake and the boxes at the main entrance
Prize Day for the 2022 Photographic Competition
The prize giving for last year's competition was held on January 29th and Mark Chambers, the President of Billericay Mayflower Rotary Club presented the prizes and Mike Ginn, the President of the Billericay Rotary Club, joined us later to congratulate the winners. The two Rotary Clubs had kindly sponsored the prizes. 
AGM and ILLUSTRATED TALK
Our AGM was held on Thursday 28th September 2023
Following the formal aspects of the AGM, Nigel Harris gave talk entitled
Going Wild
Exploring the Wildlife of Lake Meadows and Beyond
He illustrated the talk with a fantastic collection of his photographs
The Garden of the Statue of a Child
The garden is open again after its refurbishment. We do hope that you will enjoy visiting it again following the partneship work of Basildon Parks and Countryside team and the Friends' volunteer gardeners. A big thank you to the Co-op Community Fund and their local members for providing funding. Please keep to the paths!
Update on last year’s Grants.
We received four grants or awards last year last year. A grant from the Town Council enabled us to further enhance the Rhododendron bed and you will be able to see the new plants blooming soon. Waitrose through their “Community Matters” provided funds to furnish our gardeners with some new equipment and with the gardeners starting in early February it will be well used. Essex CC through its Safer, Greener, Healthier campaign enabled us to purchase the new bike racks by the main entrance which we hope will be well used as the weather improves. Finally we received a substantial award from the Co-op through their Local Community Fund to enable us to improve the Garden of the Child.
Swimming Pool in Lake Meadows
The Pool is run by Firststrokes and details can be found on their website
Cycle Rack Project
Our latest project has been to provide bike racks at the main entrance.
We received funding for the stainless-steel racks from Essex C.C, through their 
campaign
campaignand the Basildon Parks Dept carried out the installation; both of whom we should like to thank..
The bike racks will encourage people to cycle to the park, with its health and eco-friendly benefits, although riding in the park itself is actually illegal under local byelaws.
Commemorative Oak Tree
As part of Billericay’s commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the sailing of the Mayflower in 1620, the Friends of Lake Meadows have planted an English oak (Quercus Robur), which we hope will be in its prime at the 500th anniversary. Luckily we were able to complete its planting on our last group day for our volunteers before the stand down.
Event Videos
Check out these short videos
these videos have been kindly made for us by