Our friends at Discover Welling have launched 'The Tour of Welling', a series of community tidy-up events during the Great British Spring Clean fortnight, and we joined the first stop on the Tour.

Four of us gathered with the Discover Welling team and a local councillor for an afternoon litter pick at Shoulder of Mutton Green. Just a couple of hours earlier we’d been basking in decent weather at a task at Lesnes Abbey, but by the time we arrived in Welling, the sun had clocked off. The sky had turned an ominous shade of grey and a bitter wind was whistling around the Green trying to steal our bin bags.

Did that stop us? Of course not.

We scoured the Green for rubbish, and there was plenty to keep us busy. Into the bags went the usual culprits: vodka bottles, beer cans, cigarette butts, crisp packets, sweet wrappers, disposable cups and fast-food cartons.

But every litter pick has its surprises and mysteries.

Among the more unusual finds were a tea strainer and a pair of shoes. Were they connected? Was someone once brewing a cuppa on the Green before abandoning their footwear? We'll never know!

After an hour of teamwork and nattering we’d built up a pile of bin bags ready for the council to collect next week.

With the clouds looking more and more threatening, we made a timely retreat home just before the rain arrived.

A good job well done and stage one on the Tour of Welling completed!

Huge thanks to Jacqui from GG Brent for travelling north-to-south to lend a hand.