Norbury’s Manor Farm Nature Space is to celebrate its relaunch by hosting an open day as part of the Chelsea Fringe Festival this Saturday (27 May).
The council-owned space is a tranquil area of wildlife on the corner of Norbury Avenue and Manor Farm Road. It has an original WWII air raid shelter and Norbury Brook runs through it.
The event on Saturday (from 12-4pm) will feature a tour of the site, a bug hunt, a history talk, and the opportunity for local people to put forward their ideas on how the site could be developed and to share their gifts to make this happen.
For more information contact manorfarmnaturespace@gmail.com
Visit the Facebook page on: facebook.com/manorfarmnaturespacenorbury
Manor Farm Nature Space
Manor Farm Road (Entrance on Norbury Avenue)
Norbury, SW16 4JT
BACKGROUND
Manor Farm Nature Space community group has been established by local people to build on the work undertaken in 2014 by a team of students from Norbury Manor Business and Enterprise College. With participants from Imagine Health Charity, the students cleared extensive fly-tipping that had blighted the green space close to their school. They gained the support of local councillors and had the help of the council who undertook a subsequent deep clean of the site.
The pupils believed future fly-tipping could be discouraged by enabling the space to be used and thereby ‘owned’ by the local community. Through conversations with local people, associations and organisations a shared passion emerged to create a nature space on the land that local schools and residents could use for educational and recreational purposes.
The pupils identified a range of local people and organisations such as historians, ecologists, carpenters and teachers who could help make this vision a reality.
As a result of this work a group was formed to take the project to the next level.
Plans for Manor Farm Nature Reserve
The key aim of the group is to continue the work already started to create an inclusive nature space that will become a valuable community asset. The project will make the space safe and ready to use for community events, workshops, community art and photography, gardening, ecological and educational activities to be enjoyed by all in the community.
