What a turn out at yesterday’s GoodGym session together with the Friends of Vale Park. This is a local community in South Portslade, near Brighton, dedicated to improving Vale Park. They want it to be a place where the neighbourhood comes together, enjoys themselves, takes care of the public green space and becomes the heart of the local community.

Historically, Vale Park was a ‘Flint Pit’. In 1917 it was a quarry used for the extraction of sand and flints, and then became a dump. During the First World War the area was used as a training ground for soldiers who built bridges over the water-filled pits. At the south east corner, there was a deep pond fed by a natural spring. It seemed to be a popular place for children to play, to have some great games and excursions there, not without some incidents. Now it is a lovely park with colorful and flowering roses.

The Friends of Vale Park love their park and hope we do too. And we do!

15 GoodGym-ers cycled or ran to the park to help unbinding wonderful roses from the attack of burning nettles and other itching and stinging weeds. With extraordinary results! A great session for a belated celebration of Volunteers Week with some proper “Beerbusiness” at our follow up social gathering in the pub.

VALE PARK GARDENING GROUP is STARTING SOON. You might be interested to know that starting on Sat 28th June at 10 am, and then every LAST Saturday of the month, there will be a new Vale Park Gardening group. It’ll be a great chance to be a part of a lovely community, meet new people, do some gentle exercise in the fresh air and keep those weeds at bay in their beautiful rose beds. Good for the body, mind and soul!

The Friends of Vale Park are looking for a group name for the new Vale Park Gardening group, with “Weedy Ones” getting my vote 😊!

Apart from a few sunny days recently, at GoodGym Brighton it feels like it has not stopped raining for sessions and sessions. But did you know that going for a walk on a rainy day can be Good for you? Rosemary found the BBC article on How rain can make you happier and healthier and so, even this week, 9 happy GoodGym-ers went out running to help Manor Paddock social housing, where the resident Luc was waiting for us with a number of well organised tasks.

Manor Paddock House is an unusual-for-Brighton red brick and red tile dwelling nestling in a dell of the once Manor farming land, close by today to the Royal Sussex County Hospital and at the bottom of Sheepcote Valley. The House was built in 1932 but was converted to eight seniors' social housing flats in 1979. The communal garden area is flanked on two sides by stone wall, once stable walls: leftover from the previous era of Manor Paddock being a grazing field for military and racing horses (now a space for dog walkers and astro-turfed, floodlit sports pitches).

The House residents - especially the gardeners amongst them - are really grateful to Good Gym for helping, twice a year, to keep the weeds in check in this sycamore and birch-shaded, partly-wild garden; for planting bulbs and plants; for mulching fruit bushes, plus a pear and an apple tree, in Spring, and then pruning buddleia in Autumn.

We are all so lucky to enjoy this historic green space, and run to the Paddock where the horses once did!

Welcome Josh and Rosie. Hope you enjoyed this session, and were not so discouraged by the rain :-)