It has been a busy year for us all at Barnes Common. Our community growing project was recognised as the Community Project of the Year at the Richmond Council’s Community Heroes awards. The project is growing (pun intended!), continuing to work with partners and groups who are enjoying great benefits from their time spent at the project growing and connecting with nature and each other.  

You all helped us raise over our target in our first Big Give fundraiser within 48 hours! A huge achievement and something we are hugely grateful for. Knowing we have wonderful support from our local community means so much to us and helps drive us forward in all we do.  

Our Barnes Common Friends are growing and there are now over 1800 of you. That’s 1800 people championing our cause – you are helping to raise awareness of our work and our charity, volunteering on a range of projects from conservation work on the Common and in the Beverley Brook, to growing and learning activities. It may sound obvious, but we really could not do the work we do without our Friends. 

We’ve been called on for our expertise this year, contributing to panel discussions with partners on inclusivity and growing, giving talks about bats and hedgehogs, teaching future educators about the outdoors and how they can share their knowledge with the children they are teaching. Our team of scientists have been doing amazing work identifying species and contributing data to some local and national databases – you’ll hear more about this in our next newsletter.

We hosted some wonderful events this year and were so delighted to see so many familiar faces and many new ones. Our Wassail was a triumph despite a dreary and wet February morning, the summer talk series attracted not only local participants but people came from all over London and some from a little beyond. Our recent Autumn Fayre was the best yet, with over 750 people visiting to enjoy the joys of apple pressing, pumpkin decorating, willow weaving, a bit of early Christmas shopping and more. 

And there has been so much more! 

As we plan for the coming year, we hope to bring you many more opportunities to engage with your local green spaces and continue your (lifelong) learning, connect with nature, meet new people and generally enjoy opportunities for your better wellbeing while helping us keep do our work conserving these lovely places for future generations.