Tis the season for sludge sucking, tree planting and marshmallows over a campfire!

Happy Christmas everyone! This shall likely be the last blog post of 2014 which has been a year of planning, fun activities, lots of volunteer work, and a few changes in the park.  I believe 2015 will have a lot more exciting things to report on as the lottery project develops and work gets under way.  To give you a taster of things to come, we have had an artist create his impression of the park in the future following the lottery funded works....

The Hub

Marnock Lake

The Whole Park

The Play Area

The Wetland

There are now a few temporary noticeboards up at some entrances to the park displaying these images and what work to expect next year.

This week has been an exciting week for Marnock Lake and its resident wildlife.  As early work in the lottery funded regeneration of our heritage features and to improve the water quality, the lake is currently being de-silted.  You may have noticed the sludge suckers lurking around! The fish that were in the lake were safely re-homed in advance of this and our rather confused resident ducks will no doubt come and go as the work goes on but will be happy when it's all back to normal and cleaner than ever.

I am very pleased to say that our Community Orchard has now landed with the planting of 15 semi-mature fruit trees (6 cherry, 3 damson, 3 crab apple and 3 black mulberry) in National Tree Week at the beginning of December, Applications are currently open for members of the local community to sponsor and plant their very own fruit tree as part of the orchard.  This first phase of community planting should occur in February half term.  If you want to get involved or sponsor a tree please visit the Friends website www.fogh.org,uk. The deadline for current applications is 5th January 2015.

The fabrication of new pieces of equipment for the Skate Park is now complete and we expect to see Gravity SkateParks on site over the next couple of weeks installing and carrying out the necessary alternations.  An on a non-lottery matter, if you have noticed large piles of stone by the Hilbert Road gate and a small container, this is for the repair work to the culvert in the woods near Redleaf Close.  This work will be happening over the next few weeks.

Our volunteer programme will break for Christmas now and be back on from Thursday 8th January. The new programme is now on the noticeboards and Facebook page - please feel free to come along anytime. Also look out for upcoming events in the new year such as family volunteer days. Posters will be on the noticeboard and details on the ghparkhlf Facebook page.

Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year! We leave you with some pictures from our fun and wintery Woodland Adventure Day...

Up the apples and pears to a better park

Next week is National Tree Week and this seems the perfect time to get started on planting our very own Community Orchard.

Next week, contractors will be planting 15 semi-mature fruit trees to start the orchard off with our first phase of community planting due to occur in the coming February.  From the 1st December you will be able to apply for tree sponsorship via the Friends of Grosvenor and Hilbert Park website. Visit www.fogh.org.uk for details.  The deadline for applications will be 5th January 2015.

On Saturday 8th November we had soil expert Vaughn Redfern come and dig a soil pit in the orchard site to show us what lurks beneath the grass. And we all breathed a sigh of relief when he discovered that we have a lovely rich silty clay loam soil which is well drained.  That is positive news for our future fruit trees.

We followed the soil examination with a lesson in trigonometry from our very own Gavin Wilkinson who helped us with the first steps of marking out the orchard using a simple method with string and sticks! So all in all, a productive and educational day.

We shall be finishing the marking up this Thursday with our first Orchard Volunteer Day.  So feel free to come along and help from 10am.

Other exiting news is that construction of the new pieces of skate park equipment has now begun. Installation and work on site is due to begin in mid-December.

The large-scale capital works such as the Rochdale Road entrance and Pavilion refurbishments are still in the administrative procedure stages and we anticipate work commencing on site in February 2015.  You will see clearance works in the park happening between now and then in preparation of this.

Don't forget that even though it's winter, and even though the park will soon be in various states of work, there will still be plenty going on.  We have Woodland Adventure Day on the 6th Dec and the FofGH Carol Singing on the 14th Dec.  There is also plenty of volunteering days happening too.  Follow our Facebook and Twitter pages for up to date activities or get in touch.

Thanks to those of you that attended our last two park events - the FofGH Halloween Party and the Fungi Walk.  We were very lucky with the weather and fun was had by all!

Fungi expert Bryan Bullen

Fungi in the woods

Happy Halloween!

Change is in the winter air

We are drawing closer to winter and with it will come the start of some big and long awaited changes in the park.

November will kick off the exciting changes with the much needed and desired skate park repairs and improvements.  Gravity plan to begin the work from the week commencing 17th November and should not take more than a week or two to complete, weather and unexpected challenges permitting.

Then on the same side of the park, our Community Orchard will begin to take shape during National Tree Week (the first week of December).  We shall be having 15 semi-mature fruit trees planted to start the orchard off with our first phase of community planting to occur in the coming February. There will be a planning event on Sat 8th November that everyone is welcome to get involved with - look out for posters and information in the park and on the FofGH and park Facebook pages.  And then an orchard grid marking volunteer day on Thursday 27th November.  Details of how you can dedicate and plant your own tree will be published shortly.  But if you want to be more involved in the orchard project please contact the Community Engagement Officer or the Friends group.

Works on the Pavilion area and Rochdale Road entrance will be the next works to begin following that.  The HLF project team currently have an artist drawing up pictures of what the park will potentially look like following the works so people can see what the end goal is following the few months of the park looking like a building site!  These will be coming very soon.

You may have noticed more people armed with tools in the park lately.  We have a volunteer day each Thursday and on Fridays, a small group of Oakley School senior students do work experience in the park to help prepare them for when they finish school.  Overall we hope to improve the habitats in the nature reserve side of the park and enhance different areas of the park for visitors and park users.  There does seem to be a constant battle against litter and dog poo but hopefully the better kept the park is, the better people will treat it.

Oakley boys armed with litter pickers!

Friday 10th October was World Mental Health Day and to help raise awareness the Tunbridge Wells Health Team and Kent High Weald Partnership held an event in the park.  There was information on local services and also a few activities that people could have a go at such as wood working and gardening.  Despite the dubious weather it was a good day with a good objective. One in four people are reportedly affected by mental health issues and there are some great services and groups out there to support and help people.

Green woodworking in action

It has been proven that doing outdoor work such as conservation and gardening can aid physical and mental wellbeing. So if you fancy coming and volunteering in the park or with the Kent High Weald Partnership do get in touch.

You will find the latest volunteer programme on the park noticeboards by the Pavilion and the Hilbert Road gate.  There is always something fun going on in the park so this is where you will also find details of upcoming events and activities.

Finally, we end this post with some lovely pictures of wild art and fairy homes made by local school children in the park.  Those of you that noticed an increase in the noise levels in the park recently will know when these were created!

From super summer to awesome autumn

As a fun-filled and sunny summer draws to a close autumn is upon us and bringing with it the promise of more exciting things to come.  Over the next few months the park HLF project will really start to take form and we shall soon be seeing workers and changes steadily arrive.  That doesn't mean the fun has to stop though - we will still have family events and plenty of volunteer tasks so keep a look out on the noticeboards.

Over the last month our volunteers, with the help of the parkies and KHWP, have done some great work in the park. There has been some tidying up around the Oast House, plenty of litter picking, and the wood pasture area has had its annual cut and thin and is looking great.  We are also delighted to host work experience for a small group of Oakley School students who will also be helping make the park look lovely.

Consultation regarding the skate park improvements is going well and we shall soon be finalising the plan and look forward to getting the work booked in this winter hopefully. The deadline for feeding back on the latest plans is Monday 6th October so do get in touch if you have an opinion.

More exciting news - our community orchard will be beginning to take shape in National Tree Week at the end of November.  A small group of semi-mature fruit trees will be planted to get the orchard started and the first phase of the community planting will take place in February 2015 (weather permitting).  Don't worry, you have not missed out on dedicating a tree. Details on how to go about choosing and dedicating your tree will be coming soon.  If you wish to have a larger role in the community orchard project and want to be involved in planning and management please contact the Friends group or email cally.fiddimore@tunbridgewells.gov.uk

The storm before the calm

So signs are now appearing of the main HLF project capital works which will go on through to the end of next year.

Most of the large scale jobs are going out to tender at this point but there are a few signs of change appearing.  The original Rochdale Road entrance which was being used as the Sodexo storage yard has now been cleared out and plans are under way for the relocation of the substation.

Rochdale Road Entrance

The opening up of this original entrance will make a big difference to the hub area of the park by the cafe and Bowls Pavilion.

The dripping wells around Marnock Lake have been investigated and appear to be dripping once again.  Contractors are now just working out the final engineering issues to ensure their continuous drippage.

Well well well, it drips again

And the park entrance from Upper Grosvenor Road has been cleared of the scrappy trees and scrub in advance of some landscape improvement and new signage to make that entrance more welcoming and attractive.

Upper Grosvenor Road Entrance

As with a lot of the work to be carried out in the park there will be periods when areas will look a little bit untidy and bare. But this will be a necessary stage before they take on their new and improved look. So don't worry, it's just the storm before the calm.

Summer sun and fun and other stuff

Catching insects and closely examining them in trays with magnifiers is perhaps not everyone's cup of tea.  But kids do seem to enjoy it! On Friday 18th July a good 30 or so kids turned up for Creepy Crawly Quest and Craft event (funded by HLF) and blessed with good weather they had a successful afternoon sweeping the grassy banks with nets and exploring their acquisitions. Quite an array of the park's tiny residents were temporarily swooped out of their usual daily lives including grasshoppers, crickets, spiders, aphids, capsids, caterpillars, ladybirds, butterflies, and beetles.  The children also learned how to create pitfall traps and many ended the day with their own home made bug magnet (many of which had so many magnets on them, I doubt they will ever come off the fridge, ever).

James catching butterflies

Wednesday 6th August was National Playday.  Kent High Weald Partnership (KHWP) with support from FofGH and the park's CEO did a fantastic job putting on their annual event to celebrate this official day for play.  There was a great turnout of local (and some not so local) families to try their hands at willow weaving, fire lighting, shelter building, and crafts, listen to stories told by Kate, get their faces painted, and generally just have fun playing games.  FofGH's picture and scavenger trails also proved very popular with prizes to be won from the Fields In Trust kit.

Story time at Playday with Kate Jackson

We are looking forward to the bat walk next week and everyone must keep their fingers crossed for the weather.  There are definitely bats in the park as KHWP discovered last summer on their walk and also the Community Engagement Officer (that is I) treated a few of the residents from Crossways Community to a successful little bat walk the other week. We should hope to see and hear Common Pipistrelle, Soprano Pipistrelle, Noctule and maybe even Serotine is we are very lucky.


The GH Park Volunteer Team is still small but growing slowly and doing lots of great work. We have tackled some invasive Himalayan balsam, repaired some of the boardwalk that was damaged by falling trees and vandalism, carried out butterfly surveys and begun opening up the outdoor classroom and woodland paths.  It is great to see the outdoor classroom area being used by locals for playing and den building already! We still have the litter problem to tackle but that will undoubtedly be an ongoing battle.  A great group of youngsters from Catch 22 doing their National Citizen Service kindly gave up a day to blitz the litter behind the skate park - filling up over 20 bags worth!  Good news and bad really.

Shelter building in the outdoor classroom area

In other news...

I shall be working closely with the Friends group as we begin planning the community orchard.  Roger and Celia Worraker who were behind the successful creation of the Five Oak Green community orchard have provided us with lots of great advice and support. This will be an exciting project that I hope many of you will be involved with. Look out for news and events coming this autumn.

Five Oak Green Community Orchard

Following on from the fun street art workshops where we discovered the need for skate park improvements, there has been further consultation with skate park users about how we can best improve it with the limited budget we have.  The original park designers, Gravity, came up with the first draft plan which has now been scrutinized by local skaters, BMX'ers and scooter'ers and we look forward to seeing revised plans as a result.

Gravity's first draft improvement suggestions

The power of small wins

It's amazing how therapeutic a couple of hours of pulling up Himalayan balsam can be! Unlike many other invasive and non-native plants, this one comes out of the ground quite easily with a little tug.  It is a fast spreading annual weed which suppresses our native plants and is becoming very well established along UK river banks and woodlands.  And unfortunately we have it at Grosvenor and Hilbert.

And so it was, last Thursday, our practical volunteer team's maiden voyage into the conservation of our park's landscape.  Welcome to Peter, Ben, Susan and Lucy the dog - the first attendees to the new Thursday volunteer programme.  They certainly proved themselves and did the park justice by getting at a large chunk of Himalayan balsam out before it set seed. 

Volunteer vs alien

Lucy and her beloved ball

Watch this space for the next adventure of the Grosvenor and Hilbert Volunteer Team!

Happy Birthday to the Park!

Sunday 29th June marked the 125th Anniversary of the opening of Grosvenor Recreation Ground back in 1889.  So how could we let such a momentous day go by without a celebration?

On Sunday afternoon, the Friends of Grosvenor and Hilbert Park hosted a heart-warming classic birthday party in the park. Families were laid out on rugs, delicious picnics were eaten, giant jenga was stacked and tumbled, hoola hoops were hoola'd, games were played, and then there was the cake...

Scrumptious cake made by Ireland's Bakery

Councillor Ben Chapelard did a fantastic job of ceremoniously cutting the cake, then we all sang Happy Birthday and drank fizz! What splendid fun!

Free Commemorative Postcard

Last week also saw the practical volunteer programme begin. It was low key start to the regular Thursday volunteering, mostly tools and tool storage got sorted.  But it was a beautiful sunny day as is this week's task looking to be also.

Volunteer tools

Calling All Teens!

As part of the Hertiage Lottery Fund project in the park, there will be a new "teen zone" next to the skate park. The form this is to take is yet to be decided. So who best to ask what form it should take than the teens themselves.

A special consultation event was held this afternoon to ask the local kids what they would like to see next to the skate park.  Two suggestions were favoured: a parkour park; and an extension of the current skate park.

As a little encouragement to get the kids to come, Overspray kindly put on an aerosol art workshop. This went down a storm, not surprisingly as it essentially kids having a go at graffitti!

So what will it be? Parkour or more skate park? Watch this space...