You can’t help but notice as you walk along Church Road and look over the fence towards what used to be the ‘swamp’ adjacent to Halliford School playing fields, that there has been a transformation. The project is still work in progress and the green slime needs to be tackled, but the force of volunteers has already made such a huge difference after 4 community work parties.
The main clearing has been done now, so the last working party concentrated mainly planting daffodils on the culvert banks for a spring show. Logs have been laid to mark out areas and behind them, forget me nots, foxgloves, ferns and other seedlings planted. Yellow iris have been planted along bare pond edges, as well as some shrubs which have been put on the cleared area immediately in front of the fencing along Church Road. This marks the end of the beginning. There is still work to do, including the clearing of the pond itself but what a transformation already. It shows what can be achieved with hard work and a community spirit.
Local artist Peggy Pickering has painted a vision of what the space may look like eventually. We thought we would share it with you here.