This morning, seven Goodgymers gave up their Sunday morning to help tidy up the wonderful Ouseburn Trust in Byker. Upon arrival, we were greeted by Dave and Steve who talked us through the day's tasks and taught us a little about the history of the area, in particular, the stone bridge at the bottom of the valley is one of the oldest bridges in Newcastle, dating back to 1771!

We split up into two groups, with Louise L, Liz and Louise B going with Steve to litter pick and tidy up the area underneath the railway bridge, filling up numerous bags of litter, with Louise L's trophy find being a small trolley shopper which can be seen in the trolley in the photo above! The steep banks of the valley didn't stop them from venturing down to grab every last bit of rubbish they could.

Hannah, Lauren, Eoin and I joined Dave to cut back large amounts of overgrown brambles and nettles that were intruding onto a particularly busy section of path at the top of the valley. We were joined by a number of impressive horses from Stepney Stables parading around next to us, with one, in particular, enjoying the audience that we provided!

You can really see the difference we made in opening up the path in the photographs, along with the mountain of rubbish bags which are a testament to everyone's efforts this morning and I really look forward to returning next week!