The Life and Soil of the Graveyard

Ceiling, John, Aine and I met up at this brand-new TH task in St Paul’s Shadwell to remove their surplus of soil at the back of the cemetery.

The instructions on arrival were simple: remove as much soil as possible to clear the path around the church and make space for… Well, not even the task owners knew what they would do with the extra space. To be confirmed in the near future!

And so we dug and shovelled soil in a quite orderly manner, doing our best not to dig too deep to avoid accidentally exhuming the dead. We managed to remove a wide variety of random items instead, such as tree roots, a lighter, a padlock, scaffolding pieces, headstones (!) and bricks - so... many... bricks!!!

We then put the soil away in garden bags which, once full, were so heavy that no one could actually carry/drag them across the cemetery for removal by the Council. Ceiling, being fearless and optimistic, did try to move them, but alas to no avail (this led to a great picture though). Luckily, two wheelbarrows were found behind the church and available for us to put the soil in and to empty in the garden bags.

Over the 90 minutes we had for this task, a bit more than 1/3 of the area’s soil was removed. What an accomplishment, well done Team! Of course, GoodGym will need to come back to help finish the job. So do watch this space.

Next up for Tower Hamlets is Becky leading a group to hugely popular Meath Gardens on Monday – but hurry up: there is only a handful of places left!

Our dearest TH trainer, the one and only Laura, will also be leading a team to Parkview on Friday to distribute two tonnes of compost across the estate. This will be followed by one of her fitness sessions in Victoria Park where you will be covering cardio, flamingo fitness and flexibility exercises. Sign up here.