In July 2020 former Milford resident and parent of pupils at Milford School, Kate Tuck, called for volunteers to clear two allotments (and eventually a third) to create a “green space” for the children of the Milford Primary School to use. At the time the school only had a tarmac playground. A large number of volunteers, parents and pupils of the school but also other Milford residents, have worked incredibly hard over the past 6 years and transformed the area into a beautiful space packed with things to encourage children (and adults!) to play outdoors and learn about the natural world. It has also encouraged community cohesion through the volunteer sessions and community events now held on it. Volunteers work on the Greenspace every Monday morning all year round, and many weekends. During term time there is a weekly Forest School for Milford School, and another for the pre-school, but the site is open at all times for local children to use. There is a Chicken Group that organises a rota of parents and children to look after the chickens. Four formal community events are organised each year on the Greenspace now too. See the Greenspace website for more details on how the site has evolved since July 2020.
Wood chip is laid on all the paths and communal areas in the Greenspace to suppress weeds and make it dry underfoot in wet weather, Unfortunately after all the warm weather of the summer much of wood chip had mulched away and needed to be replaced. Jonathan Beard of JB Landscapes in Holbrook very kindly donated a lorry load of wood chip and on Saturday 4th October dropped it at the bottom of Church Steps on Hopping Hill – the nearest road access to the Greenspace.
Jonathan Beard dropping a lorry load of wood chip at the bottom of Church Steps.
Mountain of woodchip
Now the resulting wood chip mountain had to be loaded into old compost bags and carried by hand up the 3 flights of steps and steep path of Church Steps, over the step ladder entrance to The Greenspace and spread on all the paths. Thanks to the efforts of an army of 12 volunteers, this was achieved in just 4 hours!
Wood chip pile after 4 hours
There was so much wood chip that not only were all the Greenspace paths and communal areas re-laid but a huge heap of spare chip was created on the Greenspace.
Spare wood chip heap on The Greenspace
Many thanks to Jonathan Beard and all the volunteers who helped out on the day.
