Roe Green Walled Garden Open Day Saturday June 1st 11am-4pm

 

Green Neighbourhoods Climate Fair - Kingsbury, Saturday 11am - 4pm

 

From Brent Council

Want to find out more about what we're doing in our Green Neighbourhoods in Kingsbury? Come along to our climate fair to get involved!

We will be joining forces with Barnhill Conservation Group's Open Day and holding our Kingsbury Climate Fair in Roe Green Walled Garden on Saturday 24 September from 11am - 4pm.

There will be a host of activities including an upcycling workshop, learn how to grow plants in small spaces, tips on reducing food waste and find out all about bees. You can also enjoy homemade baked goods in one of Brent's hidden gems! 

Residents can still have their say on the Green Neighbourhood pilots via our online surveys and interactive maps by clicking here. Engagement ends on 31 October.

For further details, please contact Brent Council's Climate Team by emailing climateemergency@brent.gov.uk.

Bush Farm and Roe Green Walled Garden among groups to win NCIL funding

 

The barn at Bush Farm, badly in need of attention

My Aunt Muriel haymaking at Bush Farm 80 years ago,  Summer 1942

I was pleased to hear that both Barn Hill Conservation Group and the Bush Farm Collective whose Neighbourhood CIL bids were featured on Wembley Matters LINK LINK, succeeded in winning funding.

The Conservation Group will use the funding for infrastructure work at the Victorian Roe Green Walled Garden, including repairs to the barn that visitors will remember as housing an amazing selection of, well I am not too sure what to call them - bric-a-brac, curios, collectors' items?  Always fascinating.  

The Bush Farm Collective will also be using some of the money for restoration work  on its barn (see above) and fencing.  There are plans for a community garden, toilets and outdoor learning facilities. The Collective now has a farming licence and hope to have a small number of animals on site including sheep.

Barn Hill Conservation Group: We Need Your Help - YOU DECIDE - Vote on 25th June, 2022., from 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm to secure funding for repairs to Roe Green Walled Garden

 

From Barn Hill Conservation Group

The volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group need your vote to secure funding for urgent repairs to the infrastructure at Roe Green Walled Garden.

 

The garden has existed since Victorian times and serves as the headquarters of the conservation group. It was restored by volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group nearly four decades ago and has been maintained by them ever since.

 

The Roe Green Walled Garden is a community garden with fruit trees, a herbaceous border, a wildlife pond, vegetable beds, and a toddlers' play area. It is a welcoming place for young families and older people alike. The Barn Hill Conservation Group volunteers continued to maintain Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden throughout the pandemic. The mental health benefits of time spent in a natural environment are well documented and our green spaces have provided our residents much needed respite throughout the pandemic. Last year Fryent Country Park was voted best country park in Brent.

 

Please cast your vote for the Infrastructure Repairs that are urgently required at Roe Green Walled Garden. Carrying out this much needed work will enable us to continue our work maintaining Fryent Country Park and Roe Green Walled Garden so future generations can enjoy these spaces and carry the baton to continue efforts to preserve our green spaces and the natural environment.

 

You can book a place at the event You Decide at Kingsbury High School on Saturday, June 25th, between 1:00 and 3:30 pm, by following the button.

 

Saturday, 25th June, 2022

From 1:00 pm to 3:30 pm

 

Kingsbury High School,

Tyler's Hall,

Bacon Lane, NW9 9AT

This is for residents who live in the Kingsbury and Kenton Brent Connects area.

Click Here to Register to Vote

UPDATE: VEOLIA APOLOGISES Veolia's cheek at claiming credit for an award to a conservation garden they don't maintain

 

The long establised Barn Hill Conservation Group were put out when they saw a tweet from Veolia congratulating themselves and Brent Council for a London in Bloom Gold Winners award to Roe Green Walled Garden in Kingsbury for the best Small Conservation Area.

In fact the Garden is wholly maintained by the volunteers who work there on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturday - Veolia has no involvement.

A volunteer commented that there are two questions: 

 

Why did London in Bloom send the certificate ( on the right  in photograph above) to Veolia rather than to Barn Hill Conservation Group? 

 

Why did Veolia not only accept a certificate for something to which they were not entitled  but then publicise it?

The Conservation Group do an amazing job in the garden, as the photographsbelow shows, and have been doing so for far longer than Veolia has managed the parks contract.

Roe Green Walled Garden

The Conservation Group also does immensely valuable voluntary conservation work in the vast Fryent Country Park every Sunday: 

 

 Fryent Country Park won a Gold in the Country Parks category.

I hope Veolia have the grace to tweet an apology.

Shortly after this story was published Veolia apologised. Thank you.

 

Blooming marvellous! Double award for Barn Hill Conservation Group



Barn Hill Conservation Group are celebrating a double award from London in Bloom.

The Roe Green Walled Garden won Gold in the small Conservation Area category.

The garden is one of the gems of Brent, lovingly tended by volunteers, and replete with vegetables and flowers and fascinating installations dedicated to giving a home to wildlife.

You can visit on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturdays between 10.30am and 2.30pm.







The second award, also a Gold, went to Fryent Country Park and was the overall winner in the Best Country Park Category.

The Conservation Group worked with Brent Council and Barn Hill Residents Association to clear rubbish and the remains of camps from the 250 acre park deposited about 2 years ago.

There is now a dedicated team of residents who collect litter whilst working in the park and leave it a collection points for the Council to collect.

The Conservation Group work in the park every Sunday not only clearing litter and flytips but undertaking conservation work including keeping footpaths clear,  carrying out new planting and surveying the park's wildlife.

Further information can be found on their website HERE

A Brent treasure: Roe Green Walled Garden Open Day Saturday September 10th

There will be an  Open Day at Roe Green Walled Garden in Kingsbury on Saturday September 10th from 10.30am until 4pm. This is another Brent resource, passionately supported by volunteers of the Barn Hill Conservation Group, that deserves to be better known. To whet your appetite here is some background from the Group:

Roe Green Walled Garden

The little known oasis is located within Roe Green Park, Kingsbury next to Kingsbury Manor House.

In order to locate the garden start opposite the junction of Kingsbury Road with Valley Drive and follow the road into Roe Green Park, bear left at the fork and continue to the Walled Garden. Buses 183 and 204 stop by the junction; and Kingsbury tube station is nearby.

History

The garden was originally part of the estate of the house now called Kingsbury Manor. The house was built in 1899 for the Duchess of Sutherland and her third husband Sir Albert Kaye Rollit, who was M.P. for Islington from 1886 to 1906. It was then a country house, surrounded by farmland, and was called 'The Cottage'.

By 1909 the house was occupied by Countess Bubna, daughter of the Duchess; it later changed hands several times. In 1929 George Cloke bought the house and changed its name to 'Kingsbury Manor'. He sold the house and grounds to Middlesex County Council in 1938, and the house become a home for elderly people, while the walled garden was part of a Council Depot used for the training of Parks staff. 

John Logie Baird, inventor of television, rented the nearby Coach House in 1928. It was there that he received the first television signals from Berlin. The concrete bases of his two television masts can still be seen near the building, which is now used by the Nursery. 

In 1989 Barn Hill Conservation Group were offered the use of the facilities, including the workshop, greenhouse and cold frames, and agreed to look after the garden. It was then in a rather neglected state, and members of the Group worked every Thursday morning to tidy and improve it. 

The Group's tree nursery was established just outside the garden, growing trees from seed collected in Fryent Country Park. The young trees have been used to replant some of the old hedgerows there. 

Several new features were introduced, one of the first being the organic vegetable garden. Compost containers were built to recycle the weeds that seem to grow everywhere. Another recycling project was the dry-stone wall, constructed in the traditional way, but from rubble instead of stone. 

A new pond was dug to encourage wildlife - frogs, toads and newts - while the old round pond was left for the fish. Homes, from recycled wood, for a variety of creatures, can be seen in one corner, and birds are encouraged by nest boxes and feeders. 

Awards and Financing

The Green Flag Community Award (formerly Green Pennant Award) recognises high quality green spaces that are managed by voluntary and community groups. The Award is part of the Green Flag Award scheme (Keep Britain Tidy), the national standard for quality parks and green spaces. Each site is judged on its own merits and suitability to the community it serves. Awards are given on an annual basis and winners must apply each year to renew their Green Pennant status. Roe Green Walled Garden has won this award each year since 2005. 

Barn Hill Conservation Group have received a number of grants through the years to improve the garden - one to pave the area outside the workshop, another to re-point the East wall; but our largest grant was for our new Conservation Centre building (now named 'The Cottage' after the name of the original manor House). This new building is proving to be a great asset, and for which we give many thanks to the National Lotteries Charity Board.  The Group have also been given a grant from Brent’s Ward Working which was used to part finance a gazebo, and more recently a grant form Santander which will be used to help finance a greenhouse/classroom.  In addition to grants and donations the group are also financed from sales of bric-a-brac, books, plants, logs and wood-craft.

Current details

The Walled garden, has been maintained by the Barn Hill Conservation Group (a completely welcoming and inclusive group) since 1989, is a wonderful tranquil and peaceful area to sit, walk and browse with free entry open every Tuesday Thursday and Saturday between 10 and 2. 

The gardens enjoys visits from the local schools and other community groups

It is home to Great Crested newts, a Bee Hive and a constructed home for bugs and insects 

 

Events 

The group host several open days during the year and two years ago hosted a Russian Tea Ceremony which was presented from a Russian Group that made Kolomna Pastila using British apples to discover the tastes of the time of Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy. 

Our next open day is Saturday 10^th September 2016 between 10.30 and 4, but is also open for visitors on Tuesday’s Thursday’s and Saturdays between 10 & 2.

Further Information

The group also do conservation every Sunday on Fryent Country Park a list of meeting places and events can be found on our website http://www.bhcg.btck.co.uk/ or contact can be made by phone on 020 8206 0492 or email barnhillconservationgroup@gmail.com

Roe Green Walled Garden Open Day on Saturday

Roe Green Walled Garden – well worth a visit

 Guest blog by Philip Grant

Following Martin’s short blog publicising its open day on Saturday LINK, I went along to renew my acquaintance with this “secret garden”. I say that as I had lived within half a mile of Roe Green Walled Garden for fifteen years before my family discovered this beautiful haven, tucked away at the top of a driveway in the park. Now, this community garden run by volunteers from the Barn Hill Conservation Group is better publicised, and attracted many other visitors.

Some of the Open Day attractions on the lawn

 

A quiet wildlife corner of the walled garden

 

Part of the sunny long borde

 If you have not been to this garden before (or if you have, but are not sure when it is open), you don’t need to wait for another open day to pay it a visit. The garden is open from 10am to 2pm on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays. There are quiet spots to sit and relax, an area for children to play, educational displays, and sales of recycled items as well as the pleasant flower, fruit and vegetable gardens to stroll around. The garden has an informal atmosphere, and there are usually volunteers around glad to answer any questions. If you want to stay and give them a hand with any of the garden tasks, so much the better, but there is no pressure to do so. If you want to find out more about the garden, or their work on Fryent Country Park, please visit their website: http://bhcg.btck.co.uk/.

Philip Grant.

Open Day at Roe Green Garden - Saturday April 18th

If you fancy a break from politics in a very special place...