GoodGym Greenwich's first Wednesday task of 2025 brought us to the brilliant venue of St Richard's Church & Community Centre in Charlton. Our tasks here have generally involved weeding the open space around the building , but plenty of tasks in the upstairs hall kept us busy this evening: from a ladder climb to sweep away the cobwebs of 2024 (long vacated by their resident spiders) to a good scrub of some chairs donated by local schools.

Whilst some of us got on with touching up some paintwork, cleaning & vacuuming, some DIY experts competed in a shelving rack building competition. By the end it was more a case of us vs the shelves but GoodGym won and the shelves were completed! A nice start to the year I think. Great to see everyone again & Happy New Year! 🙂

Next week we're at WSUP on Tuesday and Charlton Manor Primary on Wednesday. This weekend we've got Westcombe Woodlands and charlton litter picking .

Until next time!

I say we, but the bush lopping was entirely the mighty Jenny, but I get ahead of myself.

This evening started with meeting Markella for a document check (Markella, you will make a perfect GoodGym social visits member - and hope to see you at a task or our Christmas social soon!) We set off sharpish to tackle Maze Hill and a what we think was a 4km run to St Richard's - rather a long one for us but a good work out! Julian had already got to work by the time we arrived, weeding down the side of the church where we left off a few weeks ago. We split into two groups, one to continue weeding and the other to tackle a bush that needed cutting down to size. > Enter Jenny with her loppers*

A perfect task for flexing those muscles out after a day of meetings. This particular bush was tied into place and all twisted around itself but after half an hour of lopping it was a mere stump, ready to be dug out. One step closer to getting this area cleared for disabled access.

Meanwhile the other team were doggedly making their way further up the path, clearing brambles and weeds and laying down cardboard to prevent their return. We're almost at the top of the path now after a couple of sessions here - Look how far we've come since last the last group run here!!

Well done team. Next week we're at Glyndon and we've got our Christmas social on Sunday, looking forward to it!

St Richard’s Church in Charlton is a much-loved space where many local events take place, from band concerts to craft fairs to cinema showings and of course regular services. But the grounds surrounding the church have been allowed to overgrow over the years. Fortunately, Good Gym excelsin sorting this out and having been for a group run on a Wednesday night we were back on a Saturday morning to continue. The first job was naturally to clear all the weeds we’d missed on the previous occasion, but from then on it was a continuous pushing back of the rows of weeds and brambles. Soon we had cleared a good amount, enough to fill three big bags, one for each of us helping out, and all that remained to have some fun tearing up boxes for cardboard to lay to avoid having the weeds come back.

This week we gathered at the Old Royal Naval College and shared stories of our worst jobs before a run up maze hill towards the lovely St Richard's Centre in Charlton.

This was our first task at the church and there's loads we can help out with here, from weeding and painting to sanding and varnishing the lovely old doors.

Owen met us with tools at the ready and the rain held off right to the end of our task which was a nice bonus. The task tonight was weeding down the side of the church, a spot that needs a bit of tlc to make sure people stop dumping rubbish there! 7 hands make light if not prickly work with some hidden brambles - our head torches came in handy. We made it quite a way up the path and will continue at our next session.

Next week we're leafleting for the Woolwich foodcycle: https://www.goodgym.org/v3/sessions/group-run-fun-session-tbc

Until next time!