GET INVOLVED

We have a schedule of events for the year ahead. Join us on one of our practical days which offer the chance to learn new skills and get your hands dirty doing conservation tasks. Come and learn more about species in the park on our wildlife walks or become part of the Friends Committee which meets to discuss the functioning of the group.

FoSNCP hold a practical workday on the second and fourth Saturdays of the month to undertake conservation projects within the park.

At present we’re meeting at the council compound – the locked gates right by the tramline, on the vehicle access road at 10 AM. We usually finish around midday and enjoy a hot drink & biscuits.

Training and tools are provided. Please wear clothes suitable for outdoor activity and the weather, bring your own gloves if you have them.

We recommend sturdy footwear. Activities are subject to change at short notice.

If you would like to register to join us, please contact us by email – friendsofsncp@gmail.com. We can then let you know if we can offer you a space on a Saturday morning.

WORKDAYS 2025

For previous years – see the archive!

11th January 2025

Our first workday of 2025 was very cold and frosty but beautiful blue skies made it a perfect winter’s day. Our task today was to clear away brambles and vegetation to uncover the primroses already beginning to show their heads. This lovely early spring display can be seen around the small woodland at the bottom of the mound. It’s a delicate process to ensure we don’t damage the primrose shoots when removing the brambles but important to let light into this area to aid their growth. The arisings were gathered up and added to the habitat bank which we created last year behind the woodland. Looking forward to seeing the fruits (or primroses) of our labour in a few weeks time.

25th January 2025

This Saturday’s workday and the previous Tuesday’s  (21st) concentrated on getting as much of the blackthorn cut back as possible in preparation for February’s hedge laying tasks. This winter, our reports have detailed the reasons for, and the location of, this conservation work. We have finally got to a stage where most of the planned clearance has been done. We have been processing the arisings so that we have material suitable for making a dead hedge. Some of the thicker blackthorn branches have been set aside for stakes which we will use to make the dead hedges.

8th February 2025

A damp and drizzly morning saw us make a short walk to our work site on the slope of the mound. This is an annual task for us to clear brambles to let in light and space to give the wildflowers a chance to flourish in the spring. The slope on the tram track side of the mound tends to get the most sun. Cowslips tend to dominate the area but other wildflowers such as primroses used to thrive in the sunny conditions. The primroses have all but disappeared these days so Ian’s plan is for us to plant some wildflower plugs in the future to try and bring back a variety. We filled ‘grab bags’ with the bramble arisings and dragged them back to the compound to add to the compost heap. A good morning’s work but we’ll need to return on another workday to finish it.

22nd February 2025

8th March 2025

The other team had a much shorter walk from the compound to the environment garden and a small copse of hazel trees. We use hazel a lot in our nature reserve primarily for stakes and are currently using it in our hedge laying. Usually sourced from other Croydon sites such as King’s Wood, it’s an advantage if we can utilise what we have on site in SNCP. This small copse was previously coppiced some years ago and is now ready to be cut back again. We had to remove quite a lot of brambles to get to the copse but once in, we coppiced the hazel setting aside stems of about 5ft 6″ in height and a suitable thickness for stakes. These stakes will be used on Tuesday’s workday to help complete the hedge laying along the seasonal path. The rest of the brash from the coppiced branches was laid into neat habitat piles.

11th March 2025

Following on from Saturday’s workday, our smaller group of volunteers headed to the blackthorn copse next to La Motes meadow. A couple of volunteers used an axe to put points on the hazel stakes coppiced from the environment garden and then helped Ian to drive them into the ground where the hedge is being laid. Then a couple more volunteers weaved hazel binders between the stakes. Everyone took turns to continue the work of Saturday’s volunteers and make habitat piles with the brash from the coppiced blackthorn.

12th April 2025