Friends of Gillfield Wood
Practical Conservation Sessions (free events). These are held monthly all year, either at weekends or midweek, with dates advertised on the website. Members can join the mailing list by contacting the Secretary at fogwsecretary@gmail.com.
Sessions are open to anyone who would like to join in. Everyone needs to provide their own gloves along with suitable clothes and footwear.
Everything we do supplements the work carried out by the Council’s woodlands team, meaning much more can be done to improve the wood for its flora, fauna and visitors alike. Typical activities are coppicing, fencing and walling, tree and undergrowth management, path repair and drain clearance and all sorts of miscellaneous jobs.
They are from 10am for 2 to 3 hours on one Sunday in the month on an agreed date with the Sheffield City Council Ranger. A Ranger attends our work mornings with appropriate tasks (light and heavy) and tools. We meet either at the Baslow Road bus terminus, the Scout Hut on Aldam Road, Totley or at the end of Totley Hall Lane. The work mornings are advertised on posters around Totley, in the local press and nearer the date are emailed out. We recommend you bring along your own refreshments.
If you are interested in helping us carry out such work in Gillfield Wood or have any questions, please contact fogwsecretary@gmail.com
We may also arrange the occasional mid-week Conservation Morning where we will not have the help of a Council Ranger but will concentrate on tasks we can do independently. Here we are likely to meet at the Baslow Road bus terminus at 10.00am. Bring spade/shovel and rake if you have them/one. And gloves and flask. We will probably finish around 11.30 but feel free to come and go to suit.
Benches in Gillfield Wood
A number of benches were uncovered during the conservation work on 4th October. Ranger Chris Roberts has provided some information on who put them there and when:
"the benches were put in by the Ranger Service (Henk and me) as a corporate work session with staff from DWP as part of their Community 10,000 project. It’s at least 10 years ago or so. Henk brought along a router and etched the names of the people involved in the bench tops".
The next PCMs for 2023/24 are scheduled for:
Sunday 10th March: Meet 10am Bus terminus. We'll be working on the Willow Tit area and also have a new picnic bench to install