1972 - 2012
Now in its 40th year
Reg. Charity No. 1046082
Part-funded by Lewisham Council
Chair: Michael Hill
Postal Address:
The Ringway Centre
268 Baring Road,
Grove Park,
London SE12 0DS
(opposite Coopers Lane)
CONTENTS
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CONTACT INFORMATION
All enquiries to the
Ringway Centre Office
Tel: (020) 8857 7980
email addresses:
(for hiring enquiries)
(for Community Group)
The Grove Park Community Group
at the
RINGWAY CENTRE
Local Open Air Amenities
Open air amenities within the Grove Park Ward include
October 2011 Report by Mark Ingleby, Chair - Friends of Grove Park Nature Reserve
Summer 2011 Report by Mark Ingleby, Chair - Friends of Grove Park Nature Reserve
About the Friends of Chinbrook Meadows
Northbrook Park (See also information on LBL Website - click here.
What’s happening at Northbrook! - Summer 2011 Report by Michelle Ball
The Nature Reserve which is adjacent to the Ringway Centre contains a variety of habitats, supporting many plants and animals. Its position, near to the railway and other green spaces, adds to its historical and wildlife value.
A good range of birds, including chaffinch and willow warbler, use the site, and ant hills of the yellow meadow ant are dotted throughout the grasslands. At the northern end of the reserve is a plum thicket that produces a fabulous crop of fruit in autumn, which is greatly appreciated by birds, wasps, foxes and local people. (For birds observed at the Ringway centre see The Great Ringway Birdwatch.
Part of the Reserve was a Victorian garden which stretched to the railway line from the near-by house where Edith Nesbit, author of The Railway Children, lived from 1894-1899. Inspiration for her writing and that of colleagues like George Bernard Shaw, Beatrice Webb and HG Wells, who sometimes met at her house, may have been drawn from these views and from local children of the area.
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The Reserve is managed by Lewisham's Nature Conservation Service in partnership with volunteer conservation groups and the local 'Friends of' group.
Nick Pond
(Additional information on the Nature Reserve is to be found on the London Borough of Lewisham website. Click Here. )
Report - October 2011 by Mark Ingleby, Chair - Friends of Grove Park Nature Reserve
Grove Park Nature Reserve wins Green Pennant for 3rd successive year!
Friends of Grove Park Nature Reserve are proud to announce that we have won their first hat-trick of the coveted Green Pennant Award – now called the Green Flag Community Award. This is an outstanding achievement in Lewisham Borough, only matched by Mayow Park (who are mainly a park rather than a nature reserve). We are hoping to display the flag on or near our new railway-traveller friendly banner at the bottom of the embankment, down from the peace sculpture, so that commuters are alerted to the achievements and opportunities of the Nature Reserve.
The quality of all our efforts and imagination are perhaps reflected in the unusually small number of recommendations for further enhancement that the judges made. They were particularly impressed by our new audio guide, which was launched on our Open Day in near rain-forest conditions on Saturday, July 16th by Deputy Mayor Cllr Alan Smith and our MP, Heidi Alexander, capably aided by a brave group of young singers from Baring School with their teachers, who celebrated the launch and their inclusion on the audio guide with some specially prepared songs for the occasion. Many thanks to our volunteers who maintained a roaring trade in teas and cakes, bird boxes and even story-telling under the canopies as the heavens poured forth.
Don’t forget, the audio guide still runs 24-7 and you can access it at any time from 020 8588 1283, followed by pressing – after the beep - whatever number of the six waymark posts you are standing by or wish to hear. There is a slight pause before the beginning of each presentation.
Jungle conditions of a more blackberry/bramble kind persist at the top of the ‘horse meadow’ land, where we have been given permission to build a wheel-chair friendly path from the grounds of the Ringway Centre to the Railway Childrens’ Walk entrance to the Reserve. We are grateful to the local Assembly for voting us the required funds for this project, which will make a much easier and more pleasantly rural approach to the Nature Reserve for visitors from the centre of Grove Park, as well as increasing the use and attraction of the Ringway Centre to Nature Reserve visitors, particularly school parties and less easily mobile pedestrians. Work is planned to commence over the late autumn.
Finally, many and special thanks to our retiring Treasurer, Diana James, for all her unstinting patience and efficiency with our accounts and transactions over the last 4 years.
Report - Summer 2011 by Mark Ingleby, Chair - Friends of Grove Park Nature Reserve
Thanks to the continued efforts of our small but dedicated groups of volunteers, Grove Park Nature Reserve (GPNR) continues to enhance both its excellent conservation record and its visitor amenities. We will shortly be competing for a record consecutive third Green Pennant Award, and some of the improvements we have been making stem from their last recommendations:
Firstly, we have been able to purchase and install a secure on-site container shed and a substantial amount of tools and equipment with money from the Council’s Locality Fund. Secondly, we have been looking for ways to raise the profile of the Reserve in the local community, and so we are launching two innovations this summer – bee hives (to create GPNR Honey) and a unique mobile phone accessed audio guide, spoken by a mystery celebrity British actor (we think it’s Sean Pertwee), to guide visitors round the site.
Our Pilot Audio Guide will be accessed by a landline number dialled from a visitor's mobile, from which they will be able to hear two minutes of commentary and sounds spread across all six of the strategically placed waymark posts in the Reserve. This is an audio system used for example in Central Park, New York City, and in the Alcatraz museum in San Francisco, but not, to our knowledge widely used in the UK, if at all.
This will certainly be a first for Lewisham and South East London, so we are inviting our mayor to officially launch the system at our Open Day on Saturday, July 16th from 12 noon to 3pm. We hope to hear again from some of the local schools’ singers whom you can hear on the mobile audio guide in the section by the Tutu Peace Sculpture, as recorded at its unveiling in September 2009. There will also be opportunities for bat and bird box making, guided walks, story telling and consuming locally baked teas and cakes.
Thanks to the imagination and sensitivity of our volunteers, we have also been able to develop informal trails and desire lines into some of the less explored parts of the Nature Reserve, which are always popular with younger, accompanied children, so there will be plenty to do...
Thirdly, we are approaching the Local Assembly for a grant to help create a more direct and wheel-chair friendly path from the grounds of the Ringway Centre to the Railway Childrens’ Walk gate of the Reserve, to make a much easier and more pleasantly rural approach for visitors to the Nature Reserve from the centre of Grove Park. Come and have your say and use your vote...
Chinbrook Meadows, Amblecote Road, Grove Park SE12
Pond dipping event organised by Cafe and pavilion in Chinbrook Meadows
FOCM 2008
About Friends of Chinbrook Meadows (FOCM)
Friends of Chinbrook Meadows (FOCM) is a park user group, whose aim is to promote this beautiful local park and liaise with other agencies as appropriate.
Chinbrook Meadows underwent considerable rejuvenation in 2002 and is now well used and appreciated by the local community. The changes in Chinbrook Meadows, and the impact of those changes, have been much studied and acclaimed.
FOCM Members keep in touch with activities, changes and concerns of other park users to monitor and inform representatives from Lewisham Borough Council and Glendale Services who manage the park. The group is keen to promote new and ongoing improvements to the park. We also run occasional events to introduce new people to the park and encourage its wider use. We are always eager to welcome new members.
Our quarterly meetings are informal and open to all. Dates are advertised on the park notice board and take place on Tuesday evenings at 6.30 in the park pavilion.
October 2011 Report by Anne Slater
The new play facilities for the old paddling pool area were completed in May 2011 and have been well used through the summer. It was disappointing that the climbing structure was smaller, and therefore less challenging for older children than we had hoped, but compromises had to be made to fit our budget.
The Friends of Chinbrook Meadows (FOCM), with support from Glendale, applied to the local Assembly for funding to install a junior cricket pitch, and additionally FOCM applied for money for a drinking water fountain and a “Trim Track”. We were very pleased to be offered money for all these ventures. We have had the water fountain installed by the under-fives play area, and the cricket pitch is now installed too. The group have decided to hold off on the completion of the “Trim Track” as this can form part of a bigger application we are making to the Lottery “Community Spaces” Fund. Showing the funders that we already have local support for our venture will add weight to our application and get the maximum benefit from our money if successful. “Groundwork” are supporting FOCM with this application which is going forward to the next stage later this year.
During the summer our Pavilion café ran a two-day Arts and Crafts event for the second year, and stalls sold a variety of goods including clothing, jewellery, cards and food. This annual event is developing each year and we hope to get even more stalls and customers next year.
Riverside management is an on-going concern for park users. Volunteers with “Natures Gym” and “Rivers and People” organisation have continued to work on the river banks regularly. There is a revised maintenance plan for 2012 which will involve more regular cuts of selected areas of riverside vegetation.
FOCM are always keen to welcome new members with an interest in the park.
Summer 2011 Report by Anne Slater
When writing in the last Grove Park Community Group Newsletter we were uncertain about the future of the proposed new play area because of government cut backs, but we heard just before Christmas that the plans would go ahead and the new facilities will be ready for use very soon. There will be an opening event on 18th June. We hope that young people in the area will really benefit from this new play area. The main structures include a conical climbing frame, a dual see-saw swing, a slide and a table tennis table. The area has been landscaped to encourage children to clamber over bridges, hillocks, boulders and steps, and the old paddling pool has been filled with sand to provide a soft surface. We will be watching with interest to see if the area encourages more young people to the park.
We were also pleased to receive funding via the Assembly to enable us to establish a cricket pitch once more. This has been a much longed for addition, and will be available for junior cricket with planned coaching in the future too.
The Friends of Chinbrook Meadows are always looking out for new ways to improve our park. Currently we are trying to get funding for a zip wire, "trim track" exercise equipment and a water fountain.
During the winter and early spring a great deal of work has been done by the riverside to manage the meadow area. This work has been done by a combination of volunteers and professionals. "The Rivers and People" project, "Nature’s Gym" and Glendale have all played a part. The area had, over the last couple of years, become increasingly overgrown with self-seeded sapling trees, nettles, creeping thistle and other dominant species. The aim has been to clear selected areas to encourage greater diversity of plant life. Anyone wishing to volunteer will find information about forthcoming sessions via Glendale (Tel: 020 8318 3986; email: lewnature@glendale-services.co.uk). It is a great way to keep fit, do something for your community and meet new people. The work is obviously an on-going process and, with the professional advice and support we receive, we hope to improve the riverside management so that it can be enjoyed by wildlife and people alike.
The Friends of Chinbrook Meadows are always keen to welcome new members with an interest in the park. Forthcoming meetings are on 19th July and 11th October, in the pavilion at 6.30pm. Contact telephone number (via Glendale) is 020 8318 3986. Note also our Arts and Crafts Fair on 13-14th August, 11-3 pm.
SOCCER FUN
Saturdays 1 p.m. to 3 p.m.
● Mini-Soccer, Skills, Penalty Competitions & lots more!
● Boys and Girls (ages 6 - 13) welcome - Please wear shin pads
Phone 07904 572709 or 07928 082431
FA Qualified Coaches, First Aid Trained, CRB Checked
Burnt Ash Pond Local Nature Reserve, Melrose Close, SE12
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Friends at Burnt Ash Pond |
Children from Baring Road School on a visit |
The reserve is normally open on the 1st Sunday of the month between 11am and 12 noon. Special events are held from time to time, and educational visits are possible. The next special event is our Open Fun Day on Sunday, 7th August 2011 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. There will be food and drinks available.
A member of the local Friends group will be on hand if you have any questions.
For more information, please contact Lewisham's Nature Conservation Officer, Jess Kyle.
Email: Jessica.Kyle@lewisham.gov.uk Tel: 020 8314 2119
Click here to display/print poster with map
If you are interested in helping in the future management of Burnt Ash Pond or just take an interest in this local green space, why not join the Friends? If you are interested contact Jess Kyle as above.
More Information about the Reserve is to be found on the London Borough of Lewisham website. Click here.
The Friends of Burnt Ash Pond Local Nature Reserve publish a regular newsletter.
Click here for Autumn 2010 Newsletter in PDF format.
Click here for Spring 2010 Newsletter in PDF format.
Click here for Autumn 2009 Newsletter in PDF format.
Northbrook Park Community Group
What’s happening at Northbrook! - Summer 2011 Report by Michelle Ball
(as published in Grove Park Community Newsletter)
Northbrook Park Community Group has been up and running now for just over a year during which time it has been working very hard to raise money and get things changed for the better in Northbrook Park.
We have now a grand total of £222k to spend on the park from various funding pots. The changes we can make with this money will mean that a fantastic new play area can be created for children of all ages, with more seating for the families including a picnic bench and drinking water fountain.
The main grass area will be an official dog-free enforceable zone with fines for dog owners who break the rules. The main grass area will be fenced off like Manor House Gardens Park, while the play area will be landscaped to ensure it looks appealing to the eye.
We have recently had 104 trees (whips) donated through RHS and another 300 hazels donated by Cheviot Trees for a coppice in the forest school area. These have been planted by the community.
We are currently working with Baring School Year 3 pupils to make wildlife boxes including Bat Boxes, Bird Boxes, Mason Bee houses, Bug Hotels and Hedgehog Houses to attract more wildlife. We could not have done this without the help of Catford Timber, Travis Perkins (Lee) and Chris Ball Roofing who donated materials.
From May Lewisham’s Natures Gym team lead by Lara Glendale (Parks Management) own conservation officer have been creating a wildlife pond, stag beetle logger and a bug hotel, while Baring Reception and Year 1 pupils will be filling the hotel with recycled items. We could not have made this project happen without donations from the following: Travis Perkins (Catford), Pondkeeper.co.uk, Torry Hill Chesnut Fencing, Paul Bromfield Aquatics, Gordon Low Products and Pets at Home in Charlton.
For further information and events go to our website www.northbrookparkcommunitygroup.co.uk