THOUSANDS flocked to Poole Park to celebrate its 125th anniversary with a fun day on Sunday.

Vintage cars, live music, arena displays and sporting fun were among the family fun offerings at the park's 125th 'birthday' organised by Borough of Poole and the Friends of Poole Park.

The event also boasted a dog show, face painting workshop, bouncy slides, free taster sessions on the lake with Rockley watersports, and plenty of stalls, games and refreshments.

As well as marking 125 years of Poole Park, the day also celebrated the successful first stage of its Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) bid. A grant of £285,000 has already been made, and the team from Borough of Poole and the Friends of Poole Park behind the bid are now in a two year development phase, with the aim of achieving the full £2.7m HLF funding in 2017 for the wide scale improvement project for Poole Park.

There was an opportunity for visitors to have their photos included in the Mosaic Project for a £5 donations towards the bid - to be match funded by HLF. The thousands of photos uploaded will be collated to form a mosaic which, when viewed from a distance, will depict the original design of the park from its conception in 1890.

And the Mayor of Poole Ann Stribley also invited the crowds to help form the figure 125 - with a drone taking an aerial shot of the moment to commemorate this milestone for the Victorian park.

Martin Whitchurch, lead officer for Poole Park Life Project, told the Echo: "We are also celebrating what the original Victorian park would have been like. It was designed for spiritual refreshment and recuperation and we are trying to get it back to those original values and lift the park to the quality people expect."

He added: "The event today has been brilliant and all the feedback great. People have been coming down with their families, having a picnic and getting involved in everything that is happening here.

"I would like to thank all the volunteers from the Friends of Poole Park who are collecting donations on the gates and working behind the scenes helping to make this all happen."