Spring was in the air at Westcombe Woodlands and Good Gym was back at this lovely hidden wood behind Maze Hill station. Nature had been busy and a number of trees had come down creating a large space that was now available for replenishing the woodland. Before the regular volunteers can plant 20 new oak trees, the ground coverage of ivy, bramble and dead wood needed to be cleared an this is where Good Gym came in. Two runners got to work with loppers, secateurs and a scary looking mattock to clear the ground and create space for the regeneration. The work was steady and it was a bit tricky to stay balanced, but after an hour and a quarter a big patch of ground was clear, a large pile of wood and brambles had been created and it was time for a well deserved hot chocolate.

On a cloudy and blustery Sunday morning, 5 GGers joined the Friends of Westcombe Woodlands volunteer group for our regular monthly clean up/chop down of the nature area. This being the first visit to this beautiful woodlands for Kerry and Sander, they were treated to a personal tour by Julian, who knows the pathway like the back of his hand. Meanwhile, I stayed behind to help bringing out and laying down all the tools that we would need.

Tour completed and tools in hand, we made our way up the path to the area that was most in need of clearing: a patch of land between 2 paths that was covered in ivy that needed to be cut back to allow the rest of the plants to grow and thrive. We all took to the task with gusto, making use of secateurs, loppers and even an axe!

Almost 2 hours later, the fruits of our labour were visible in the form of a much clearer patch and a huge pile of ivy debris! Time to bring the tools back down, have a cuppa and the obligatory biscuit (always generously provided by the volunteer group), and make our way back home, hoping we wouldn't be blown away by the increasing gale-force wind!

It was a glorious sunny Saturday morning as 5 GoodGymers made their way to the gorgeously lush Westcombe Woodlands. We were greeted as usual by the lovely Nigel, a regular volunteer at the woodlands who signed us in with his trusty iPad. If you've volunteered before it is super quick as it remembers you from last time!

Before we knew it, we were set to work clearing the pathways of branches, twigs and debris in order to make sure there were no obstructions for the upcoming Open Gardens weekend on June 10th.

This is an annual event across the wider community and includes gardens in Greenwich, Charlton, Eltham, Blackheath and Lee to help raise money for Greenwich & Bexley Community Hospice.

It's beautiful being in the woodlands in the summertime. You really see all the flowers in bloom. Although the work was a lot of weeding, pruning and generally tidying up we enjoyed it as it was so lovely being in the woodlands at this time of year.

At the end of our stint, we had a quick well earned coffee provided by Nigel and it was just time for some quick snaps to show off our handy work. We all then headed off to enjoy the rest of our sunny Saturday feeling pleased with the work we had done.

Saturday saw Good Gym return to Westcombe Woodlands, a lovely, almost hidden wood behind Maze Hill station, to help the friends group. The group are a lovely organisation and had organised an open day, for which they needed our help in setting up.

So in glorious sunshine down to work the three of us went: there were multiple jobs, mostly relating to tidying the place up but in no particular order: clearing the paths of brambles and holly, laying logs to delineate the path, putting up signage, setting up tables and last, but not least, stringing up the bunting (an important task to identify the entrance to the woods as this is currently hidden behind a building site). Two hours passed before we knew it and it everything was ready for the open day, which it is hoped turned out to be a marvellous success.

Saturday saw us put the gym into Good Gym. Post Park Runs, two runners made their way to help out at Westcombe Woodlands, a glorious hidden woodland behind Maze Hill station in Greenwich. We were met by the volunteers and after some "light" trench digging and leaf clearing we were put to the main task of the morning: moving logs to create seats for a public open day a the end of April. First, logs had to be rolled end over end to move them and this certainly gave this author an appreciation of the efforts involved in strongperson competitions, but later we could team up to move larger logs. After an hour we were done, the logs were in place and the volunteers had already started planting up the new trench.

It was a cool and crisp Sunday morning as six, bright eyed and bushy-tailed GoodGymers eventually all converged on the secret-squirrel location of Westcombe Woodlands. It really is that hidden that it took some of the newcomers quite a few attempts to find it.

It truly is a gem of a place nestled deeply in-between Maze Hill Train Station and Seren Park. If you didn’t know it was there, you would never guess that a woodland lay hidden behind the station.

When we got there we were greeted by some of the regular Volunteers of Westcombe Woodland Richard, Nigel and Chris, who after asking us to sign in to their new trendy iPad app, then assigned us various tasks to do. It really was a little bit of everything from weeding, tidying up the raised beds, to pulling out the ivy, to carrying logs up to the top of the wood.

We all set to work and after not very long at all all of the ivy and wood were neatly piled up and the woodland floor was cleared. After this we continued weeding and just generally tidying up the place, clearing twigs and branches that had fallen down during the winter.

After this, Richard gave us a potted history of the woodland. The area was originally gravel pits but in the 1870’s a widow called Mary Roberts brought her family here and cultivated the land to grow fruit orchards and vegetables.

This drew to a close a lovely morning where we all felt we had had a really good work out either pulling up the ivy or carrying the logs and wheelbarrows up the hill. Either way we had all had a good gym session (geddit!!??) and were looking forward to putting our feet up when we got home!