Working parties

Issues relating to our Friends group working parties.

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Successful Volunteer Event in Historic Park

We had a wonderful work day in Bromley Palace Park on Saturday 15th February. With a good number of volunteers there, we were able to achieve a lot. Installed; ornamental grasses, ferns, and a couple of small trees in the Fernery. Also re-sited another bench here, which combination has transformed this small peaceful area. Elsewhere further bramble, ivy etc was cleared back along the Carriage Drive, in preparation for much shrubs to be planted. We have some 80 such shrubs to be planted, so a lot still to plant!

Volunteers also installed some spare paving stones. This, along with improved signage, has improved the path to the Rafford Way entrance. Preparations for the later installation of interpretive boards was also undertaken.

So thanks to all the volunteers that turned up. This included; Kerry, Phil, Jan, Jeff, Moira, Kristen, James, and all the rest…….. Much remains to be done.! Our next work party takes place on Saturday 8th March, anytime 10 am – 4 pm. Part of our ‘Love Bromley Palace Park’ project. So please come along and make a difference.

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A Great day on Glassmill

The work party last Sunday (17th), organised by Thames21 on the Glassmill Pond, was a great success. With some 15 volunteers attending, our primary task was to repair a serious leak, that if not resolved, may have impacted pond levels in the medium term. This task involved people getting dirty pushing ‘puddling clay’ into the gap and ramming it in really hard, thereby forming a good seal. While it involved others moving the clay to where needed, Nick and Christine had the important job of ‘puddling the clay’ itself.

Other activities involved cutting back some invasive foliage, litter picking and collecting loads of golf balls located in the water, wash down from an upstream driving range!

Finally it required a large number of volunteers to move the still very heavy clay to within the fenced off area, ready for later use. Phew!

A great day on Glassmill!

The end of a very satisfactory day indeed, thanks to all those taking part………..

However there remains more work to be done. If you are interested in taking part in future Thames21 organised work party events on this site, the next two events are on Friday 22nd November and Sunday 8th December. There will also be three further events early in 2025. To find out more about all these events and how to book a place, please goto https://www.thames21.org.uk/events/ and look for Glassmill Pond.

You can find out more about our work on this site HERE

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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.

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Working party on Glassmill Pond

For our latest working party we chose a hot bank holiday weekend, which was probably not the most sensible. However this urgent decision was taken as at the time there was a large number of shopping trollies and scooters dumped in the pond. However Environment Agency staff had removed them before we turned up, so saving us a lot of hard work – phew!. We also decided that with the island very overgrown it was not safe to go on there. 

Working party volunteers
Working part volunteers
Some of removed vegetation
Pollution trapped by shrub
Just some of rubbish collected
Cleared area

However we still had plenty of tasks to be done – and we achieved the following — 

  • Collected 4 large bags of rubbish, including a number of golf balls, tennis balls and two footballs
  • Cleared two large piles of undergrowth and saplings from around the weir end (see ‘after’ photo below).
  • Partly cut back an overhanging buddleja bush near the concrete ramp. This has been trapping some pollution from upstream for some time (see above images). 

Our next scheduled working party will take place on a weekend sometime in November, when we hope that the vegetation will have died back and we can safely work on the island. If you wish to get involved please Email. You can find out more about Glassmill, and our project to refurbish it HERE.

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Successful Tree Planting Event

As part of #NationalTreeWeek volunteers recently attended a @BromleyGreenGym event in College Green #Bromley, to plant thirty native tree saplings, as well as a couple of fruit trees. It was sunny and dry, and so with their help all scheduled tasks to were duly completed.

Family to the ready
Volunteers planting saplings

Also volunteers prepared the ground for a new improved willow dome, which will be completed in the next few weeks.

Digging up turf for new willow dome

Afterwards the volunteers were able to celebrate all their efforts over a hot drink and biscuits. Everybody mentioned what a good time they had.

The saplings were provided by Mayor of London, and the fruit trees were bought by Bromley Green Gym themselves.

Bromley Green Gym, who help maintain this park, run sessions in College Green, College Road BR1 1PA – every Friday 11am-2pm and welcome anybody to turn up and take part.