Community Garden and Woodland

We are very proud to be the custodians of the unique green space behind the Ringway Centre, including a Community Garden, Cox’s Wood, Camp Nesbit and a footpath linking the Community Centre site with Grove Park Nature Reserve.  

The opportunities that having this green space gives us and the community are numerous: the space can be enjoyed merely for what it is, it can be used for fairs and festivals, for astronomy nights, for outdoor learning and literary programmes, for nature studies, for learning camp craft, for walking and strolling, for self-guided heritage walks, for picnics; the list goes on and on.

As an example, over 400 primary students have participated in The Adventure Series project, learning about ecology, local history, architecture and literature, e.g. Edit Nesbit’s ‘The Railway Children’.

The Ringway Centre site straddles the ground of the house called ‘The Three Gables’ where Edith Nesbit lived over a five-year period in the 1890s . It is strongly held belief that the author got her inspiration to write ‘The Railway Children’ during her stay in Grove Park.

Indeed, not far from the Ringway Centre is the Railway Children Walk leading to Grove Park Nature Reserve, situated partly on the former grounds of ‘The Three Gables’ and over the railway bridge to the Downham and Hither Green side.

As a community group, not only do we have the responsibility to look after the outdoors around the Centre, we also want to share them with the community in any way we can. Here are some examples of how we have done this:

·         A fairy-lit trail through the woodland one December was simply magical.

·         Finding treasures in the garden and woodland during an Easter Egg Hunt delighted local children.

·         Who can forget walking the haunted trail through the woodland on a Freaky Friday Fright Night?

Activities such as outdoor chess, table tennis and boule are available at the Ringway Centre.

The addition of a poly-tunnel provides opportunities to raise plants for the Centre and it will play a central part in a new ‘Garden Club’ project about to start with funding from the Local Assembly

The garden is regularly used for community days and events, please see below for previous events that have been hosted alongside Wild Rangers.