Fruit & Nut Village Billesley: How the friend groups are changing green spaces to benefit the community
Fruit & Nut Village (FNV) expanded their operations into Billesley last year, incorporating work on new or existing orchards at Ways for Wellbeing, Swanshurst Park, and Billesley Common, alongside multiple partners whose sites and efforts will serve the community in years to come. Ways for Wellbeing CIC, Friends of Swanshurst Park, Billesley ARK, Greencoat Nursery, and Friends of Billesley Common have worked with FNV to establish green spaces that bring local people together, creating greater biodiversity, tackling the climate crisis on a small scale, up-skilling the volunteers involved, and improving their physical and mental health whilst doing so.
These spectacular benefits and partnerships have further given way to more collaborations this year, where our new Billesley Area Manager, Matthew Letten, has been working tirelessly at Highfield Hall, The Dingles, and Trittiford Mill Park - with our friends at Highfield Hall, Friends of The Dingles, and Friends of Trittiford Park & Surroundings - to help manage the community growing spaces and create new orchards and forest gardens at the respective locations. These partners have been nothing short of miraculous; their enthusiasm and passion for the spaces they're managing have been infectious, and the plots continue to multiply (both in number and the number of plants going into the sites), so that everyone may benefit from the joint efforts of these groups.
A recent collaborative session between FNV and the Friends of Trittiford Park saw many volunteers come together to clear the encroaching, non-native cherry laurel that has taken over a section of hedging in the park. The forest garden being established here will see a great number of biodiverse, edible perennial plants and trees go into the site, which will be more suitable to serve the community and the park’s wildlife in the long-term. We were also joined by the Friends of The Dingles and the Friends of Swanshurst Park, proving that the cohesion within the community of Billesley is strong and flourishing; exactly what we want to see after the recent fires have ravaged several sites across the West Midlands due to the rising heat.
Angela, one of the volunteers with the Friends of Trittiford Park, said they have been an established group for four years now, and have been working with us at FNV for one year. When talking to Mark Grocutt, one of FNV’s newest Trustees, during one of our community gardening sessions, she conveyed the belief that the work we’re doing together is important because she ‘enjoys what [she’s] doing.' She said:
"It gets me out of the house, helps my mental health, so being part of a group of like-minded people is very rewarding to me, my wellbeing, by giving back to the community."
Angela told us that in the friend group they undertake many volunteer activities and initiatives such as clearing the river, planting trees and bulbs, look out for the wildlife living in the park, litter-picking, clear fly-tipping, and more. The wide range of opportunities to get involved with these local friend groups and FNV continue to grow, and their significance in these difficult times of rising climate change is paramount; together, we continue to combat the negative effects of the rising summer temperatures and soon freezing winters, where the green spaces will need all the help they can get to survive.
The hard work and positive attitude these volunteers possess is admirable and inspiring, advocating for better community growing spaces for residents to benefit from through biodiversity and variation. Building resilient and people-focused, whilst baring natural ecosystems and individual locations in mind, we aim to create spaces like this across the whole of Birmingham to contribute further to the wider Nature City.
The Friends of Trittiford want to reach out further to schools and universities to teach essential skills in managing our changing environment, where they would be able to learn about edible perennial landscapes in conjunction with community engagement. Volunteering with charity organisations is a great way to better understand the world around us, and in this instance, as Angela so rightly said, give something back.
Jill, a volunteer from the Friends of The Dingles, said their group is relatively new, and their mission is to ‘make The Dingles a better place.’ The Dingles is another green space close to Trittiford Park, and these friend groups have a great relationship with FNV and each other, continually turning up to each other’s sessions and improving these growing spaces, whilst building community cohesion and understanding in the process. Jill said:
“What we have found is that, through the help of [Fruit & Nut Village], there are a number of fruit trees that just need clearing, so people can access them. Our main aim is to clear the fruit trees, but we’re also trying to put things in place to preserve the middle path.”
This highlights the difficulties that can arise with untended growing spaces, where nature will take over to a point that orchards are no longer accessible; FNV spend much time during sessions ensuring clearance is a priority, so that these beautiful forest gardens and community plots are better able to serve the communities they’re a part of. The determination of the friend groups will serve the local people for years to come, volunteering their time to create greater advantages for residents living near these areas.
Mark also had the chance to speak to Beryl, the Chair of the Friends of Swanshurst Park where we have established an orchard together, saying they’re ‘always happy to help out in other parks’. She told us:
“At Swanshurst, we have a variety of things that we need doing. There’s the conservation work, there’s the constant litter-picking, […] we also have the bird survey once a month, which is very interesting. We’re counting the birds and we see a different variety each time, and anybody is welcome to join that.”
Long story short, the work the friend groups are doing in Billesley, Hall Green, and surrounding areas are nothing short of incredible. The way they come together is a model example for us all; the volunteers amalgamate their efforts into something more tangible, as we know, when people come together with a goal in mind, great things happen, and great things are definitely happening here. FNV are lucky to serve these communities and create these friendships, as without them, well, we don’t think about that; we push forward, plant more trees, create new growing spaces, and connect with as many people as we can whilst doing so.
If you live in Billesley and the surrounding areas, you are never too far away from a community growing space, empowering local people to take the management of nature and perennial food consumption into their own precious hands. If you have the time, please join us and the friend groups for a bit of mindful gardening – you won’t regret it. We certainly don’t.
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