Despite the heat and holidays, work improving the Greenspace has continued. As described in the last report, we were successful in our application for a grant from Derbyshire County Council for a new 8ft x 10ft shed and it had arrived and was being stored at a volunteers’ house. Before moving it to the site we had to make room for it. A very old and ugly fibreglass shelter was in the very middle of the proposed site for the shed, so the shelter was broken up on site then the bits brought down to Hopping Hill, where we arranged for Amber Valley Borough Council to pick them up, along with a whole lorry load of other non-compostable junk we had found when tidying up the adjacent allotment we acquired last year.
Ugly Fibreglass structure
Fibreglass structure being broken up
Rubbish waiting to be taken away
AVBC lorry removing rubbish
Then the shed itself had to be moved to the GreenSpace – most of it was carried by being strapped onto the top of a volunteer’s SUV, but several pieces were so big they had to be carried by hand on the pavement on the A6 from Vicarage Road to Hopping Hill – we got some funny looks from motorists and our arms were 3” longer by the time we’d finished the carrying!
Over the summer Mark Hudson has very kindly donated two lorry loads of chipped bark to the Greenspace and we’ve bagged it up and carried it all up Church Steps to the Greenspace.
This is being used in our ongoing programme to line all the paths in the Greenspace with weed matting and cover this with chipped bark or gravel, thus controlling some of our ongoing problem with persistent weeds. Here you can see our young helpers in action and in early September much of the sensory maze path was treated in this way.
Archie carrying weed matting up to the Greenspace
Archie and Nancy laying out weed matting
Paths on sensory maze treated with weed matting and chipped bark
Looking forward our next big project will be to dig out the base for the shed, lay slabs (which have already been donated by people round the village and brought up to the site) for the base, then erect the shed. We have a work party planned for Saturday 10th September, 10.00am to do this, and all volunteers to help will be welcome. If you’re not aware, The Greenspace is above the former Holy Trinity Church on Hopping Hill, access via Church Steps between Hopping Hill and West Terrace.
We have also applied for funds from Belper Town Council to make one side of the shed roof a green roof and attach water butts to the other side. We plan to continue our programme of laying weed matting/chipped bark/gravel on the paths.
You may have received one of our flyers (artwork below) – we are very keen to have more volunteers to help us in the projects just described and in the future.
We’re keen to have volunteers to help us in all the areas shown below.
To contact us
See our website
Find us on Facebook (Milford Community GreenSpace Group)
E-mail us MilfordCommunityGreenspace@gmail.com
Phone Kate Tuck on 07794268059
