This morning we joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods (FOLAW) for their monthly conservation session in the ancient woodland that forms a gorgeous green backdrop to the abbey ruins.

Sarah, Johnny and Manish (along with his little one!) came from volunteering (and running 🏃) at the adjacent junior parkrun. Sunday double good-deeding at its best!

We also welcomed Jinling to her very first GoodGym task 🥳.

Marc from FOLAW told us about a suspiciously straight line of trees discovered by the park ranger, the alignment suggesting it might have been an ancient hedge. To help uncover its story, our task was to clear rampant ivy from one side and cut back beastly brambles on the other. You could say we were helping the ranger see the wood for the trees 😉.

Our fearless team of GoodGymers took on the brambles. With loppers and shears, we cut back the branches, then dug in (literally!) with forks to wrestle out the stubborn roots.

Despite the rain we stayed busy and by the time we wrapped up we'd revealed a good section of the tree line. What a sense of achievement!

With perfect timing, the rain stopped as we packed away the tools, so we headed to Chestnuts café to carry on chatting over a drink and a KitKat before heading home.

Huge well done to Jinling on completing your first good deed - a brilliant GG debut 🌟. And it was lovely to have our smallest helper along, getting his very first taste of GoodGym and nature conservation too 💚💪.

We'll be back again for this session next month - sign up here. But before then there are plenty more opportunities to get involved in your local community with GoodGym Bexley.

On a blistering cold Sunday morning, GoodyGym joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods for another monthly conservation session. We assembled at the Chestnut Kiosk to gather a wheelbarrow of trusty tools, before ascending deep into the heart of the woods.

After a thorough health and safety briefing from the ever-diligent Marc, we were set to go. Our task for the day was to saw down small holly trees and lop away holly branches. This would allow more sunlight to reach the woods and support biodiversity.

How do we know where the tree will fall? We soon learned that you can control the direction of the falling tree by initiating a v-shaped beak cut. Curious onlookers were surprised to find out about the invasiveness of the holly plant. A couple of enthusiastic parkgoers even joined us for a few moments.

In ninety short minutes, the piles of fallen hollies stood tall, heaps and mounds above the rest of the woodlands. What a difference a conservation day makes!

We will be back on the first Sunday of February. We hope to see you there!

We spent time litter picking around Lesnes Abbey, the surrounding paths and woods, helping to keep this historic green space clean and enjoyable for everyone.

Ashton was a star at the Woodland Festival with the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods — spending the day litter‑picking and bringing folklore tradition to the woods as a Green Man for the parade through ancient trees 🌳 🍃 🍂 .

We think Ashton may have found a new photo for his GoodGym profile 📷!

This sunny Sunday we joined the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods for their monthly conservation session.

After a lung-busting 1k uphill march to The Heath (with a wheelbarrow full of tools) , we continued an ongoing battle with invading bracken, and rampant brambles and holly, to make way for heather to reclaim the area.

Pulling up ferns and cutting back the other foliage is a surprisingly good workout, and time flew by as we chatted with the other volunteers.

After a few photos, it was a scenic downhill stroll to The Chestnuts kiosk for teas and coffees, and more chatting.

Until next month.... 👋.

Coming straight from marshaling at Lesnes Abbey junior parkrun we swapped our giant high-five foam hands for gardening gloves to join the monthly conservation session run by Marc from the Friends of Lesnes Abbey and Woods.

With a barrow-ful of loppers and saws we headed across the park and into the woods, picking up some odds and sods of litter as we went. (Just how did a broken mug handle end up there?!?)

If you know this area you'll know the only way is up, and it was a bracing uphill walk to a big patch of holly growing alongside the path.

Marc explained how invasive holly is, and how cutting it back encourages biodiversity as new plants, insects and other wildlife will move in to make the cleared area their home.

Although just five of us today, we got stuck in and you can see the transformation in the photos: Holly gone, and the cuttings piled up a short distance away, ready to be collected by the Park Ranger in due course.

As if to inspect our work, a robin appeared and flitted across the area, giving us the nod to say 'Nice work!' Then a bright green grasshopper came out and played around our feet. Sadly they were too quick for photos, so we humans took a few pics of ourselves and called it a day.

Until next month...