Love Melksham Column: A resident’s love letters to her town

Park Yoga

This week, my love letter to Melksham is written from the sunny expanse of King George V Playing Field, in the peaceful presence that follows Park Yoga.

If you’ve been in the park on a Sunday morning in the summer, you may have seen people heading purposefully across the grass with yoga mats and water bottles. They arrange themselves near two friendly women in green T-shirts next to a fluttering green feather flag, inviting you to this week’s free session of Park Yoga.

This morning, as people arrived from every direction and rolled out their pink and purple mats, I was aware that I didn’t look as yoga-ready as most of them but I was also aware that this is a welcoming, non-judgmental space. Friendly smiles and nods of recognition were shared by a growing crowd of women, men and a handful of children, filling up this side of the field.

Around 80 people have settled in by the time our lovely yoga instructor Hannah welcomes us all at 9.30am. With blue sky and swaying trees as her backdrop, she asks if there’s anyone new to yoga, and several hands go up. She beams and introduces this week’s theme of friendship and connection and invites us to connect to our breath, our body, each other and the nature around us.

It’s been many months since I last tried yoga and I’m a little worried that I won’t be able to keep up, but the stretches are easy and I’m soon enjoying the wonderful sense of release deep in my shoulders with the alternating arch and reach of the ‘Cat and Cow’ sequence before sinking gratefully into the surrender of Child’s Pose. There is an invitation to team up with a new friend, which some of us do and as my new yoga buddy points out, it’s like primary school again, helping each other extend that little bit further while keeping balanced and steady.

The session concludes with a quiet shavasana, where we lie on the ground, letting the warm breeze drift over us with the sounds of birds, whispering leaves and happy children from the distant splash pad. It’s a moment of gratitude for the opportunity to move and breathe and to simply just be.

Melksham Park Yoga takes place at 9.30am in King George V Playing Field (in the half-dappled shady bit near the gym equipment) every summer Sunday until 13th September. It’s run by the charity Park Yoga, supported by Melksham Town Council and Wiltshire and Swindon Sport (WASP). It is free for anyone at any level of experience and donations (by card not cash) are always welcome.

There are regular updates and inspiring messages on the website parkyoga.co/melksham/ and you can simply show up on a Sunday and move into another nourishing reason to Love Melksham!

Miriam Zaccarelli