Public Events

Items associated with public events in any of our parks

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What’s happening to the seasons?

With the impact of global warming the traditional seasons seem to be getting a bit mixed up, with plants in flower when we least expect them! This will seriously impact insects and other creatures dependent on them for their sustenance e.g. pollen/nectar. If they cannot either adapt to synchronise their food plants, or find alternatives, they will be seriously impacted. Also birds, etc which predate such insects and will also be impacted.

So it was therefore very relevant to take part in a survey on New Year Day to find any such plants in our local parks. Led ably by our very own Andrea Deri, this was part of the national New Year Plant Survey organised by the Botanical Society of Great Britain & Ireland. Nationally this year they found 663 different species in flower.

More locally our stalwart team, duly wrapped up, braved a cold New Year Day very slowly wandering around both Church House Gardens and Martins Hill carefully looking for this plants in flower, some of them very small, Our findings, once duly identified, were then uploaded to a dedicated BSBI database, so contributing to the national figures.

New Year Plant Hunt attendees

During our survey we found some 38 different species in bloom. The most surprising one perhaps was the Broom plant found in flower. This is normally expected to be blooming in late April/early May!

Broom in flower in December on Martins Hill. Taken by Andrea Deri.

We hope to continue monitoring the plants found in our parks over the coming months.

You can find out more about the national figures HERE.

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Celebrating St.Blaise & Bromley Palace Park

Last Sunday there was a ceremony marking the connection between Saint Blaise, a 4th century christian bishop & martyr from Lower Armenia in modern Turkey, with this town centre park. He is celebrated as the patron saint of animals, healing of throats, infants, wool workers, etc, etc.

The above spring-fed chalybeate (iron traces) well was established a long time ago in the grounds of the Bishop of Rochester’s former palace – now Bromley Palace Park. To celebrate this an event to bless the current well by the Deacon at St.Joseph’s RC School, Bromley, along with the Mayor and Mayoress of Bromley in attendance, plus approximately 40 members of the public.

In opening the event the Mayor mentioned how Saint Blaise was connected to the healing properties of water and speculated how Bromley might have become a spa town, perhaps rivalling Royal Tunbridge Wells! However he would not recommend anyone drinking the spring waters today. He also pointed out the many wonders of this park which, while so quiet and rural feeling, was only some 400 metres from the busy High Street.

The Deacon of St. Joseph’s then conducted a brief service and official Blessing of the well and its associated spring, with the attendees taking part. After the ceremony people were encouraged to tour the park which, despite the sell-off of the northern parts of the site, was still fully open to the public. To find out more about this park and how you can help the ongoing efforts to restore the park please HERE.

Volunteers are carrying out further work to further improve this historic park. Next work session is on Saturday 15th February, any time between 10am and 4pm.

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Its All Happening at the Pond

Over the last few days a lot has been happening at Glassmill Pond, Glassmill Lane, BR2 0EL, with two events! The first on 23rd June was part of the Three Rivers Clean Up campaign. Volunteers cleared some 6 bags of rubbish for pond, including many golf balls which had ‘escaped’ from a golf driving range upstream. They also managed to cut back willow tree branches that had fallen into the river channel. If it had not been removed it could have blocked the river with resulting local flooding. At both events we were very pleased to welcome the Mayor of Bromley, who put on some wellies and got stuck in.

Some new flowers were spotted, just a sample of the many plug plants we dug in a few months ago.

And four days later on 27th June Thames21 organised a community event, as part of their London Rivers Week programme. Yet more volunteers turned up. This time the first task was to reposition some large stones, in order to raise water levels next to the pond inlet, thereby making it more possible for fish to migrate further upstream.

They then had a chance to monitor the really small things normally hidden in the river bed, but which are indictors of good water quality. To do this they had to stir the gravel and using a net collect a sample, and study their catch very closely.

By this means they came across loads of tiny immature sticklebacks. Also the larval stage of; olive mayfly, leeches, hoglouse, gammarus, blackfly larvae and some very small worms. All these are potential food of others, including dragonfly larva. Indeed a few adult dragonflies and demoiselles were spotted flying over the pond. This is indicative of the new arrangements having a great impact on improving the biodiversity of the river.

Finally they all pulled together to gather a more unnatural catch, in the form of a shopping trolley and a Lime bike which had been thrown into the pond.

However we left another shopping trolley in place, as it was being used by a Moorhen mother for her nest, along with some eggs, five when this taken earlier by Chris Holly.

A very satisfactory end to these events. We are looking forward to organising more events on this site. To find out more about this site and our exciting plans for the future of this river please go to our Glassmill Pond Restoration project page.

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Flowers bring us together

We all value flowers, what they represent and how they give us joy. They can also bring families or communities together marking special events. Queens Gardens is one place where this happens all the time. The next time you visit this park why not try and spot the various trees marking such occasions?

With the rose the national flower of both England and Bulgaria, it was great to meet up again with members of the Bromley Bulgarian group in celebration of the roses they donated and planted late last year. They installed a plaque to mark this, as well as taking the opportunity for watering and feeding the roses. It is sincerely hoped that they will flourish along with our various communities.

The Bromley Bulgaria group hope to arrange a further event in Queens Gardens later in the year.

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Brooming Lovely!

The Broom plant (Cytisus scoparius), after which Bromley is named, is now in full flower on Martins Hill. This despite ongoing encroachment from the more vigorous Bramble. It is sometimes confused with the more widespread Gorse, but unlike it Broom only flowers in late April and May. So now is the very best time to see it.

In order to manage this, and encourage the Broom to thrive, we were recently helped out by volunteers from Thames Water, as part of that companies ‘Giving Back’ scheme. Some eight enthusiastic volunteers, cut back a large area of encroaching Bramble. Despite the day being very hot they achieved a lot as can be seen in the following before and after images.

Bramble before & after work party

The Thames Water team (see below) had a good time while carrying out this important work. They were restricted in what we could do, in order to avoid nesting birds, and we intend to carry out more work like this later in the year.

Subsequently on Saturday 11th May we, along with Bromley Civic Society, organised an exhibition in The Glades entitled ‘Broomtime’, celebrating this plant and its continuing importance locally. Besides information boards there was an arbour for photographs, various children related activities, and walks to the site. Small sprigs of the plant were handed out to attendees. The Deputy Mayor and Mayoress also visited us, and were presented with a a Broom plant.

It was a successful event, despite ‘competing’ with the nearby noisy celebrations by Bromley FC of their promotion success. We hope to have a larger celebration next year. In the meantime you can find out more about Martins Hill and its Broom HERE.