GoodGym Get a Sweat On in Yetton

For reasons that are not entire clear the village of Kirkheaton is also known as Yetton, but what is evident is that the GoodGym crew certainly got a sweat on with a task at Yetton Community Centre last night.

Three weeks ago we had visited the centre, which used to be the village school to help out clearing the car park/playground area of leaves, weeds and other detritus. Such was the scale of the task we didn’t quite it finished in the allotted time, but never one not to deliver on their promises GoodGym Huddersfield was back last night to complete the job.

Four GoodGym Huddersfield regulars set forth from the Stadium just after 6:30pm. I was joined by Kati Law, Louise Galvin and Ben Godfrey for the 3K uphill run to Kirkheaton. This was our coldest run to date, with the winter chill biting as we warmed up with a steady climb on Bradley Mills Lane. Our route then took us through Ravensthorpe and Dalton, before the tough climb up the steep stone sets of an old packhorse trail which had everyone walking at one point or another. However we were all running again by the time we reached Yetton and we strode into the Community Centre car park looking like Olympic marathon runners.

Once again Michael, a volunteer from the centre was already there with spades, forks, shovels, brushes, and a work light to equip us for the task ahead. With minimal preliminaries, eager not to get cold again we got stuck straight into the job. On our last visit we had filled 9 compost bags with weeds and leaves, and our target was to go at least one better on this occasion.

As we worked Michael recounted tales of when the building was a primary school, which closed in the 1970’s. It turned out that the area we were clearing tonight was actually the site of the outside toilets, which have been subsequently demolished. Kids were obviously tougher in those days!

We worked, we swept, we shovelled and we kept filling compost bags, lining them up as we went. Despite the cold of the night keeping active kept us warm, although after our nice indoor task making willow stars last week the Christmas wreath making class which was taking place in the Community Centre did look very tempting!

Anyway 45 minutes after starting we had filled 12 bags and the playground/car park was looking much tidier. Resisting Michael’s kind invite to come inside for coffee, we set off back to the Stadium as we knew we still had 5K running to do.

Stopping only for a swift selfie by the huge Christmas tree outside the Zeneca Works, we were back at the Stadium for bang on 8:30pm. After a quick stretch we said our goodbyes and went off home, happy in the knowledge that GoodGym Huddersfield always finishes what it starts.

Thanks as ever to last night’s GoodGymmers, yet another good job done.