6 Goodgymmers from across the whole of London joined the Friends of Crouch End Open Space for their wonderful monthly volunteer morning, helping with maintaining the forest trails.

https://crouchendopenspace.org/

Together, we met with David, Emma, Glenys and the team in Wood Vale before traipsing along the muddy footpaths between Highgate and Muswell Hill. Our main objectives for the day were to install some organic wooden edging around the main footpaths. Fallen branches, felled trees and logs are perfect for this! The objective is to keep walkers, runners and dogs away from newly planted trees and saplings in Spring.

Half of our team then helped with installing some wire fences towards Crouch End Meadow, installing stakes and wrapping chicken wire in place. Our other team helped with laying some temporary boards (made of donated decking and planks) to help visitors through the muddiest patches of the walkways.

We finished our session with a lovely picnic, hosted by local volunteers. Hot soup, cheese, bread, fruit loaf and cider to celebrate a great job well done.

Very wholesome ditch digging that will keep the park paths clear of water, followed by some soup and cider chatting with friendly volunteers from the local area

Our Goodgym crew caught up with the lovely team at Crouch End Open Space on Sunday morning for our first working session of Autumn. Our tasks involved preparing pathways for visitors over the Winter months by laying wood chip across potentially mud covered surfaces, and by trimming back overgrown foliage to ensure safe passage. To complete a solid work day, we were invited to a community picnic, just before the heavens opened!

Area Activator Simon joined Josh, Caitlin, Theodore and Karen for a wonderful Springtime woodland maintenance session with the Friends of CREOS (Crouch End Open Space). Between us, we successfully constructed multiple dead hedge barriers along the pathways linking CREOS to Highgate (protecting new saplings and habitats from pedestrian interference), using loads of donated branches, twigs, sticks and logs from a local tree surgeon. We also laid at least a ton of wood chip along the paths, to increase overall accessibility for woodland visitors. Josh was kept busy with installing new posts for dog bins along all of the CREOS paths- a very important task!

After two hours of wonderful woodland work, we returned all of our tools to their respective homes, and we were treated to a full picnic spread, offered by the Friends of CREOS. Thank you all so much!

Area Activator Simon, Kim, Emily and new starter Laura (welcome!) joined the Friends of Crouch End Open Space (aka CREOS) for a glorious sunny Sunday afternoon of forest path building and maintenance.

Almost every month over the last 6 years, Goodgym Islington have assisted with the upkeep of the paths between Highgate and Muswell Hill (a local green idyll). This time, we helped with preparing the footways for the winter months. Laura and Kim took charge of weeding the main paths across CREOS meadow, and achieved a full transformation over the course of 90 minutes. The pair mentioned that they really enjoyed this relaxing task, as they were also in the perfect place for greeting the various dogs out on their nature walks! (Also, congratulations to Kim for achieving a new PB at the Hyde Park 10km yesterday- she still had her medal to hand and was rightly proud to show it off!).

On the other side of the meadow, Simon and Emily joined CREOS member David in shoveling and wheelbarrowing left over sand from a project at The North London Cricket Club. Our intention was to sprinkle the excess sand into various pot holes around the open green space, and across various areas susceptible to becoming puddles. Afterwards, we trundled up to the top of the Highgate pathways with spades and rakes in hand, and pulled out as much foliage as possible from the purpose made gullies following the main walking route. Again, we were intending on reducing the likelihood of the paths from becoming wet and muddy too early in the season.

A lovely way to while away a Sunday afternoon. We will return on the Third Sunday of next month!

It was wonderful to return to one of Goodgym Islington's longest running community missions after a short break over Summer! We had some regulars returning to Crouch End Open Space and the forest paths between Highgate and Muswell Hill (including ever present John and Friends of CREOS Guro and Nicolas), with new starters like Erayna.

Tasks on offer today involved moving some newly cut down tree stumps across the woodland (to be used to dead hedging and creating barriers around wild flower patches), and trimming away the overgrown tree branches surrounding the forest paths. Area Activator Simon also assisted with litter picking around the green fields near the local school yards, while Nic did a smashing job with weed whacking with a petrol driven strimmer!

Wonderful work everyone, Thank you for joining us!