Iffley Glebe plays a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley village. The glebe is full of wildflowers and the hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. The glebe is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust and they often ask GoodGym to help with maintenance tasks.

This week we were tackling one of our regular tasks - weeding the Iffley Glebe wall. Everyone spread out along the inner and outer walls to denude it of weeds and stop them from getting roots established and destroying the structure. We managed to get the whole front boundary wall cleared, and most of the inside too, filling a large sack with greenery in the process. The mossies were probably delighted at all the flesh to feast on, so we all have some itchy momentos. Note to self; find the local Avon lady for insect repellant.

We'll probably be back to Iffley Glebe again later in the summer for a second go over the wall, plus tackling a section on the northern edge of the site, some hay raking, and sycamore removal.

Welcome to GoodGym Jenny!

We spent a sunny late summer evening snipping down sycamore saplings to stop them from self-seeding all over Iffley Glebe, carefully pulling ivy and other unwelcome green guests off the ancient stone wall around the meadow, and clipping large amounts of bramble, nettle and hawthorn which were encroaching on the entrance to the storage garage.

It's always a joy to be up in Iffley in the summer, with it's village vibe and feel of having stepped back in time for a little while.

Congratulations on reaching the 100 Good Deed milestone Kieran.

Happy 10th Good Deed Freya.

Welcome to GoodGym Andy!

Iffley Glebe plays a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley village. The glebe is full of wildflowers and the hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. The glebe is owned by Oxford Preservation Trust and they often ask GoodGym to help with maintenance tasks, particularly keeping the ancient stone wall clear of foliage.

This week we had 2 big tasks - weed the wall and also cut down some sycamore saplings which had sprung up close to the boundary and had been liberally distributing their seeds across a neighbour's garden. Ben and Fred took saws and loppers to tackle the sycamores and everyone else spread out along the inner and outer walls to denude it of weeds. We would usually do wall weeding a bit earlier in the spring, and the clumps of plants were much more extensive doing it in June, but we managed to get the whole front boundary wall cleared and all the problem sycamores felled, filling 3 large sacks with greenery in the process.

After a warm run and task Bethan's suggestion of a dip in the river was very inviting, so we popped along to Rivermead Nature Park for a swim/paddle. Very refreshing!

We'll probably be back to Iffley Glebe again later in the summer for a second go over the wall, plus tackling a section on the northern edge of the site and some hay raking.

Lovely to have a GG tourist in our midst this evening - good to meet you Louise.

It was a momentous evening - the return of the GARLAND OF JOY!

For the first time since the start of the pandemic we resurrected the Garland of Joy last night, and the first recipient was Jane to celebrate her 10th Good Deed. Well done Jane! There was some chat about passing it around to make up for all the missed Garland wearing over the last 2 years, so send in your petitions/applications if you've missed out on a garland-worthy milestone.

Iffley Glebe is one of Iffley village’s most important open spaces, playing a vital role in maintaining the rural atmosphere of Iffley within it's city setting. The field is full of wildflowers each summer and the ancient hedge across the field provides birds with nesting places, and insects and berries for food. At night the glebe is an important hunting ground for bats and owls. The stone wall surrounding the site has a lot of weeds growing in it which, although pretty, need clearing regularly in order to keep the wall in good condition. That was one of our tasks for the evening, as well as some (very careful) pruning back of tree branches in the corner of the site - being sure to check for any signs of nesting birds before chopping.

It turns out 25 pairs of hands makes light work of weeding walls and pruning. Despite some minor traumas (spiders, stinging nettles), snickering over childhood names for galium aparine (aka...sticky-willy), and not quite resisting the urge to stick goose-grass on anyone's back (thank you Samantha, in an hour we had stripped the main wall along the Glebe of the worst of it's weeds inside and out (not the moss though!), and made a good start along the two side walls too, although some of the ivy proved extremely tenacious.

The cold wind meant there was no hanging around after the group photo - we were straight away off running, taking the scenic route back along the Thames Path past Iffley Lock.

The lure of frisbee and post-run drinks, brought out a bumper crop of Goodgymers last night. Basking in the sunshine we plotted a scenic route to Iffley Glebe, which turned out to be shorter than the 'direct' route. Note to self: measuring is key.

Iffley Glebe tasks seem to be our lucky charm. Or maybe Goodgym is Rachel from the Oxford Preservation Trust's charm?! Either way, the sun always shines at Iffley Glebe, which made for perfect hay-raking weather.

When we visited the Glebe in June the long grass was head height, but it was cut at the end of July, baled and the hay taken away, leaving the meadow clear and nettle free. (This must be the first time in weeks that there have been no nettle stings on a Goodgym task!)

Our tasks for the evening were to get the Glebe prepped for autumn: raking up the left over bits of hay and bundling them onto the compost pile, giving the stone wall a final summer once-over for weeds, ivy and moss, and protecting the wooden noticeboard with a coat of wood preserver.

Stu and Aoife bagsied the noticeboard, channeling their inner artists with some careful paintbrush action, while the remainder of the group tooled up with rakes gloves and secateurs to tackle those insidious weeds and demonstrate their hay-handling expertise. Kudos to Sarah who wields a rake like a pro (or like she's a little too familiar with a pitchfork?!), and top marks for scarecrow action have to go to Mark - if it's not selfies with scarecrows it's posing as a scarecrow. Vicky and Alison shifted huge quantities of hay with some excellent teamwork, and team wall-weed found that the outside of the wall had done pretty well since our 2 previous weeding visits, so the inside was the place to be this week.

As ever, we managed to get through an impressive amount of work in a relatively short amount of time thanks to everyone getting stuck into the jobs. 30 minutes later, hay pile amassed, weeds eliminated, and noticeboard renewed and ready for the elements, we stopped for some much-appreciated squash and shortbread before a highly competitive game of frisbee.

Apologies to anyone who actually plays Ultimate Frisbee for our very confused and chaotic version of the game, but however much we may have bent the rules we had a lot of fun!

At 1-1 the UN were called in to declare a draw and the game over, and after one last photo we waved goodbye to Rachel and Iffley Glebe until next spring. Appreciating the downhill start to our run back to base we swooped down to Iffley Lock and picked up the Thames Path, dodging geese and bikes along the way, arriving back at East Oxford Community Centre sweaty but happy. Amazingly, the biscuit Bethan stowed away for later survived the sweaty run. Leggings with a snack pocket are clearly the way forward.

Stretches completed, and off to the PUB!

Welcome Alice to your first Group Run. Lovely to have you along.

This week is the Jo Cox Foundation's Great Get Together, which encourages communities up and down the country to get together to celebrate kindness, respect, and all we have in common. All Goodgym runs this week are in partnership with the initiative, and you can find out what else is going on here. Goodgym really is the perfect example of ethos the Great Get Together is trying to encourage, as everyone is friendly, welcoming, and enthusiastic about helping and supporting each other and their community. Despite my tongue-in-cheek title to this run report, this week's group run was no exception to this!

After distributing wrist bands and stickers celebrating the Great Get Together, as well as the ever-essential gardening gloves, we set off to our task at Iffley Glebe, chitter-chattering our way along the Iffley Road. A moment of distraction, and we had our first accident for the incident log, as an uneven pavement caused a tumble and a bloody knee: Hope it isn't too sore today Mark! Fortunately the injury didn't end the run, and onwards we went with barely a limp, through the pretty village of Iffley to meet Rachel from the Oxford Preservation Trust at Iffley Glebe.

Iffley Glebe is an important piece of meadow land in the heart of Iffley, which helps the area retain it's rural character despite being in the city.

At this time of year the grass (and nettles!) are tall, and there is an abundance of wildflowers in the Glebe. The grass will be cut for hay next month, but for now it is a mini jungle, which is a perfect habitat for wildlife. We were previously at Iffley Glebe in April, clearing the old stone walls of ivy and other weeds to help preserve the stonework. Our repeat visit was to remove any returning weeds in the wall bordering Church Way before they get established, and to start work clearing the tenacious ivy covering the wall with the cemetery. The cost of repairing stone walls runs into thousands of pounds, so keeping the weeds away is vital. This time we also had the bonus task of removing the metal cage from around the trunk of a young walnut tree now that it is big enough not to need the protection.

After an explanation of the tasks from Rachel and a brief history of the Glebe, we split into teams, our tallest runners setting to work on the walnut tree cage, as they were the only ones who could reach the top of it! Meanwhile a quartet headed out onto the pavement along Church Way to weed the wall, and the remaining Goodgymers armed themselves with secateurs, handsaws and loppers and set to work on clearing the ivy along the cemetery wall.

As always, 30 minutes flew by...despite the fact that we know we can achieve quite a lot in half an hour we are always pleased to see the results of the hard work!

We managed to completely remove the metal cage from around the walnut tree, clear almost all of the back wall of ivy, and de-weeded the whole front wall. Team work makes for dream work!

Returning tools, and pausing for squash and shortbread (thank you Rachel!), we set off to our 2nd stop of the evening - the Iffley Road Sports Centre. Scooting straight through to the Roger Bannister Track we now had the opportunity to see if we could run a sub-4 minute mile!

Whilst none of us managed to equal Sir Roger Bannister's achievement, I'm pretty sure that we would have done if we weren't already a bit tired from our hard work at Iffley Glebe :-)

We will be back to Iffley Glebe again in August, by which time the grass will have been cut for hay, and so we have been invited to take the frisbee for post-task fun and games in the meadow.

Thanks to Sarah for backmarking the run, Mark for taking some of the photos, and to Oxford University Sport for allowing us to run on the Roger Bannister Track.