11 GoodGymers help clear bindweek and thistles from the historical moat at Fulham Palace

On a noticeably cooler Saturday morning, 11 GoodGymers headed to Fulham Palace to lend a hand in the historical moat. A sea of red and black GG tees gathered on the moat bridge and we headed over to the Gothic Lodge ready to meet Lucy, the Head Gardener for the Fulham Palace Trust.

Lucy, armed with a wheelbarrow of tools and large garden waste bags welcomed the group. With the register signed, we all gloved up and in true GoodGym team spirit helped get all the tools and bags down the narrow steps into the moat.

Once we were all in the moat, Lucy gave a brief history of the moat. Amazingly, Fulham Palace's moat was nearly 1.4 km (0.87 mi) in length and was the largest domestic moated site in medieval England. The moat was filled in with builders' debris in the 1920s, and exists, underground, as an unbroken circuit. In 2010, an excavation began to uncover the historical moat, which you can now see either side of the moat bridge and was what we were going to be working in today.

Recently, the moat had been botanically surveyed and it was discovered there were some really important plant and wild flower populations - some were the best north of the river! - however, the bindweed had taken hold since we were last in the moat back in January and it needed a good clear once again.

Lots of Saturday morning moativation!

Our job today was to help clear the 'bad' weeds, bindweed, brambles and some of the thistles from the moat. Monika, Jack, Cookie, Arba, Chris, Sarah and Beth ducked through the tunnel to the other side of the moat and began pulling out handfuls of bindweed from the steep sides of the moat. Cookie picked up a pair of shears and began cutting away the brambles and bindweed ✂️, while Jack used his hands and brute strength to pull out bindweed at the foot of the moat 💪.

Sarah balanced herself halfway-up the moat as she pulled and tugged at the bindweed, displaying exquisite poise and balance - check out the boomerang of her in action! Chris and Monika made short work of scaling the steep moat right to the top, pulling out bindweed as they went! They then used their vantage point to great effect, pulling out all the bindweed that had wound itself round the other plants; while at the top in their red GG tees they also became a brilliant advertisement for GoodGym with many passers-by asking 'how do we join you?'.

Thorn to be wild!

Once most of the bindweed had been cleared, Arba and Beth focused on tackling the thick and thorny brambles, using their shears to both chop and pick-up the brambles into the large garden bags, to avoid minimal contact with the thorns! Jack and Sarah did a brilliant job of ensuring the large garden bags didn't become too full or heavy as they did quick and regular shuttles to the skip to empty out the bags and return them again for filling!

Thistle while you work

On the other side of the moat, Lucy, Katie, Jess and Rose were tackling the large population of thistles and coming out on top. Katie, Jess and Lucy chopped down the thistles as Rose efficiently raked up all the cuttings and placed the piles of cuttings into the bags, with the help of Head Gardener, Lucy. Amongst the thistles they found a small multicoloured ball hidden away, oh the treasures you find on a GoodGym task! Despite the steep slope, the team made quick work of all the thistles and completely transformed this side of the moat so that it was now thistle free! 👌

Running...our moat of transportation

After two hours of cutting, pulling, raking and clearing we had filled the skip full of bindweed, brambles and thistles. We called it a day and took a quick group photo in the moat before we said our goodbyes and headed off in different directions. Top work team! 🙌

Shoutouts 📣

A big welcome along to Rose who joined us for their first GoodGym session - great to meet you, hope you enjoyed it!

Thank you to Jack and Monika for joining us from GoodGym Richmond, it was lovely to have you along, hope to see you all at another H&F task soon!