Category: Friends Group

Garthorne Road Nature Reserve is pleased to announce and been recognised and awarded as a Green Flag Award Community Winner. This is a key criterion for the Green Flag Community Award as it looks to how well the site relates to and encompasses the local and wider community.

• Welcoming Place
• Healthy, Safe and Secure
• Well maintain and Clean
• Environmental management
• Biodiversity, Landscape and Heritage
• Community Involvement

After 18 months that have seen our parks and green spaces play a vital role for people through lockdowns as a place to relax, exercise and meet friends and family safely, the news that Garthorne Road Nature Reserve has achieved the Green Flag Award is testament to the hard work and dedication of the Lewisham Council Conservation team and the reserve’s volunteers in maintaining and open the reserve that make the green space a great space that everyone can enjoy.

The reserve joins Darces Wood in Sydenham as well wider diverse sites as the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, Woodhouse Park in Peterlee and Chiswick Old Cemetery in London.

Saturday 16^th October

2 – 5pm

The Friends are opening the reserve for the last time this season. Come and explore and discover the wildlife. We have a self guided tree trail or a children’s mini beast hunt.

Also author Chris Schuler will also be at the reserve to launch his new book about the Great North Wood which Garthorne Road Nature Reserve was once part of it and contains historic maps and environmental evidence, The Wood That Built London charts the fortunes of the North Wood from its earliest times: its ecology, ownership, management, and the gradual encroachment of the metropolis.

Copies will be available for sale at £15 normally £19.99. (cash only please)

3 –  5pm

For further details contact us:

We was privileged to getting assistance from Network Rail and Mitie employees to clear the historically amount of fly tipped rubbish from behind Beadnell Road houses consisting from garden waste to bedframe to even an old oven and bits of motorbikes. We manage to fill a 10 yard skip which can take about 100 rubbish bags. Also some very angry wasps other wildlife found was several Slow-worms and a new species never recorded on the site Common toad and Sparrowhawk. A big thank-you to the team for all their hard work and Amanda from Network Rail for organising the event.

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Female Sparrowhawk photo by Ernest Thomason

The Friends of Garthorne Road Nature Reserve is having their next conservation taskday on the following dates. Volunteer  numbers is limited to 10 on first come basis.  

Saturday 10^th July

Saturday 14th August

Please don’t book on to two consecutive session so that everyone gets a chance to volunteer. There will be a waiting list if the session get fully booked if you booked  a ticket but something comes up and you can no longer attend please cancel your ticket on Eventbrite so that it will become available for someone else.   We will be doing a range of jobs from controlling invasive species, path edging & dead hedge creation. I hope to do some further volunteer ID training sessions at workdays.

We are Covid safe and have prevention measures in place. Please follow these guide. Because it is a closed site to the public making it easier to maintain social distancing. We’ll be running volunteering a bit differently to keep everyone safe and will be maintaining the following precautions:

Please do not attend if you have symptoms of COVID-19  

Please avoid using public transport if you can

Hand washing facilities and hand sanitiser will be available

Please bring your own gardening gloves if you have them? otherwise we will supply you with an clean washed pair of gloves.

We won’t be providing hot drinks or biscuits so please bring lunch and drinking water

We will be maintaining a 2m distance at all times

We will be limiting volunteer numbers to 11 including the leader per workday

We will disinfect tools before and after each session    

Please wash clothes that you wear to the sessions regularly

We have be doing some heavy tasks and will require steel toe footwear and they will also be some tasks available that don’t require these but if you have some please bring them. and wear clothes you don’t mind getting dirty and sturdy shoes (preferably steel toe cap boots)

Please note there are no toilets on the site but you are welcome to find a bush!

If you are going to be late please either text or phone me on 07707023359

We hold ours workdays on the second Saturday of each month throughout the year and the tasks varies month by month from small tree felling to doing surveying for butterflies during the Spring and summer. We have Co-vid prevention in place to protect the volunteers

The friends open the reserve to the public from April to October on the 3^rd Saturday of each month April-September and are looking for volunteers to help us?.  

Garthorne Road Nature Reserve it totally run and maintained by volunteers in partnership with Lewisham Council,  are you interested  in getting involved in the Friends of Garthorne Road Nature Reserve (FoGNNR) volunteering as a  committee member or assist in managing the reserve on the  monthly workdays which are either on a Saturday or Sunday you can stay for as little or the whole day as you wish? garthorneroadnaturereserve.com/about/  

Please see the Friends of Garthorne Road Nature Reserve Privacy Policy: garthorneroadnaturereserve.com/about/privacy-policy-for-networking-for-friends-of-garthorne-road-nature-reserve/  

·       Friends of Garthorne Road Nature Reserve Beadnell Road, London SE23 1AA

We are opening the reserve again for families to enjoy the site wildlife. Please wear a mask at the entrance when queuing and keep 2m apart from other parties. No per booking required.

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