Welcome to East Ham Nature Reserve Heritage and Conservation Volunteers
The nature reserve is open every day, so please visit. Please don’t pick or trample on any flowers. The bees and butterflies need them much more than you do. Download a map of the site EHNR_NewMap[47882]
The Heritage and Conservation Volunteers meet every Wednesday and the last Saturday of each month 10am – 1pm. Please come and help, there is lots of work to do and it’s great for your mental and physical health. No need to book. Just arrive at the Norman Road entrance at 10am.
Conservation and Heritage Volunteering Wednesday sessions
These are every Wednesday 10am-1pm, but you don’t have to stay for the whole session. Hot drinks and biscuits at 11.30am.
Tasks include :
Removing ivy from trees and gravestones,
Splitting and replanting clumps of snowdrops
Making dead hedges
Hoeing, scything and raking areas in meadows and woodland ready to sow wildflower seed in autumn.
Clearing areas of goosegrass (cleavers or Sticky Willy)
Heritage volunteering!
Saint Mary Magdalene church is one of the oldest in London, dating back to the 12th century. It stands in the largest parish churchyard (not cemetery) in the country, which is now East Ham Nature Reserve. There are approximately 7,500 named graves with stories to tell. We need help uncovering gravestones, many of which are covered in ivy, and recording their GPS position so we can find them again. As a starting point there are 64 war graves we would like to find and record to make a war grave trail. If you are interested in helping, please email Penny at [email protected]
Volunteering Saturday session
There is a Saturday session on the last weekend of each month. The next Saturday session will be 29th March 10am to 1pm.
Tea and biscuits at 11.30.
Friends of East Ham Nature Reserve
Being outside in natural spaces is so good for mental and physical health that, as well as conservation and heritage volunteering, we have a group of Friends of East Ham Nature Reserve, who receive an occasional newsletter about the nature reserve. Contact Penny at [email protected] if you would like to join.
The idea is to get people out and about in our space, which is very different from the parks in Newham. Although it is close to the A13 and surrounded by houses, it feels like a bit of countryside, with a little country church. Come and enjoy the peace and quiet.
Green Gym is not a gym!
If sweaty gyms are not for you, why not join our friendly group. We work in the open air, which is great for mental and physical health, giving nature a helping hand at the same time. We maintain the diversity of habitats at the nature reserve. We do a variety of tasks from digging out brambles to planting wildflowers and clearing ivy from gravestones and paths. You can also learn to do more specialised tasks like hedge laying, coppicing and scything. There is something suitable for everyone and you can work at your own pace.
If you find any black mats, they are for a survey of slow worms that collect under the mats because they like to be warm. If it is sunny the mats can get too hot so the slow worms go underground to avoid being cooked! You can look under the mats, but make sure you put them back exactly as you found them. Please avoid touching and disturbing any animals that you find. You may be lucky enough to see common lizards in the grassy areas.
If you look under logs there are plenty of minibeasts like wood lice, slugs, centipedes and snails to look at. Make sure you leave everything exactly as you found it.
Our address is East Ham Nature Reserve, Norman Road, London E6 6HN.
We meet every Wednesday and the last Saturday of each month 10am-1pm. Even if you don’t want to work, come along at 11.30am for hot drinks, biscuits and chat.
If you would like to join our group, please let Penny know by emailing [email protected] or you can just turn up.
Please note that we only have enough equipment for small groups. If you want to bring a group of people, or for corporate volunteering, please contact Sarah Dodds [email protected]
If you come to work please wear suitable clothes and shoes (there are a lot of brambles and stinging nettles on the site). We provide gloves and tools.
Please note that, as all our tasks involve using sharp tools, we cannot take responsibility for under 16s. Children are welcome, but must be supervised at all times by a responsible adult.
For more information email Penny at [email protected]
We are an independent community group, which is a member of the TCV Community
Network, but is not run by TCV leaders.
There is a second Newham Green Gym, which is the Greenway Orchard Project, run by trained TCV leaders. They focus particularly on mental health issues. For information go to http://www.tcv.org.uk/london/green-gym-london/newham-green-gym