Hear what’s been happening, how you can join in and a whole lot more. Our Ward Councillor Tamasin Rhymes will be speaking on green issues.
Be there! The House bar will be open, too! …I hope they have nuts…
It may be chilly but the Park continues to hold special moments of discovery whether you’re strolling along or rushing to work.
And please take some time click on the link and read about the events of 2025 as we head towards the promises of the new year.
http://fspark.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-FSP-End-of-Year-Newsletter-1.pdf
Think about how you can contribute to the health and wellbeing of the natural park residents and the neighbourhood users. And then put the Annual General Meeting in your diary for …
Details at the beginning of the newsletter above.
We’ll start with the business meeting including Chair’s Report, Treasurer’s Report and election of Management Committee. If you’d like to join the Committee please check out the December email again, and then contact us prior to the meeting (werfsp@gmail.com).
Please bring your comments and concerns for new business as well as events you would like to support.
One of our members whom you may already know, Roy Williams, with be giving a talk on dog behaviour strategies to make the park safer and more relaxed for ALL users, including the dogs. Q&A afterwards.
Spread the word to anyone who is new to the neighbourhood. If you know anyone who could use a written version of this info, let us know or print one out for them, please.
See you there!
Kris Inglis and the Management Committee
Held in Shrewsbury House – Present: 15 members, with 3 apologies
Chairperson, Kris Inglis began the meeting with thanks to those attending.
Our local speaker and Dothill allotment holder, Dr Philippa Mason, gave a fascinating talk about the geology under our feet on Shooters Hill and beyond. She is a senior lecturer in Planetary Remote Sensing at Imperial College London but presented very ’down to earth’ explanations of local features and their evolution over billions of years. FACT: The Thames was a glacial river and its glacial tributaries running down the hill became the sites of our oldest woodlands.
A lively Q&A followed and we hope to hear more from Dr Mason in future
Arising matters from last meeting:
Management Committee was introduced and thanked for their efforts as we became more active again post-Covid. This has always been a volunteer position determined by individuals’ interest and time available. Officers are decided by the MC once elected at the AGM. You can volunteer to join the Committee at any time by contacting werfsp@gmail.com
Our dear friend and longstanding Treasurer Sonja O’Sullivan passed on in October. We now need a competent bookkeeper/treasurer to take up the position. They will have help from an aspiring assistant to share the load. This is an URGENT need coming into 2023 so please consider serving in this capacity.
All current members agreed to stand and were elected by members present.
Planned events so far:
Plans in progress are Foraging Walk, Bat Walk, Military History Walk, Quiz in May, Summer Festival, habitat and wildlife surveys (we need more interested volunteers to join a core group).
All the events and activities in the park need time and effort from as many members as possible to embrace the whole community, including youngsters, to learn and be involved in this vital space. We have over 400 members on the mailing list… and would like to know that everyone feels part of Shrewsbury Park, using it happily, safely and wisely.
Please consider any contribution of hands-on help or ideas you could offer in the new year.
AOB:
We wish everyone a very joyful holiday season and healthy new year.
We’re past the winter solstice so it’s getting lighter towards spring already!
Thank you for caring for and supporting your Park
The FSP Management Committee
Our plans for this year’s AGM have been scuppered so we are just going to update you on news of the park and leave the Management Committee the same for now: Sandra Bauer, Paul Buckley, Alan Deacon, Kris Inglis, Sonja O’Sullivan, Ron Senkus, Irene Telfer and Iris White. If you would like to join the committee and get more involved, there is a link to use later in this email. New members are always welcome.
Arising from the 2019 AGM:
Summary of past year…
We held a successful 2019 Quiz night with Shrewsbury House in November that proved a fun time and a good fundraiser. A member alerted us to the Celebrate National Lottery 25 Grant and turned the application around to meet the deadline. This gave us £775 for wildlife monitoring equipment, a decision based on last year’s AGM discussion of habitats. We have materials for hedgehog surveying, a nature cam and two bat detectors so far and look forward to working parties being able to carry out investigations. Many thanks to Les for all his efforts on this application.
After cancelling the March Bird Walk it became clear that every visit to the park would have to be self-directed for the foreseeable future. No Summer Festival, just walks for exercise, play, reflection and running around madly became the main focus. Thank you to everyone who continued to encourage social distancing, responsible picnicking and considerate dog walking during the most stressful times. Many people discovered the pleasure of this open space and experienced the natural world on our doorstep.
Have you seen the video showcasing FSP and the park? Or taken a turn on the swing that appeared in April?
Thankyous
We’ve had help with habitat management this summer. One was a survey done by Joe Beale, local environmentalist, who walked the park with a few members to identify habitat diversity and make suggestions as to how we can appropriately support and manage the space.
The Royal Borough of Greenwich Parks and Open Spaces were very cooperative when approached with FSP meadow care concerns: when they met myself and Les Clark they had already mapped out the next two years’ mowing from the same environmental criteria. There is a lot of expertise and experience we can draw on in P and OS.
Thanks to Michelle for providing several months of hedgehog news and guidance posted on the website. And to Les and Liz for establishing watering stations for wildlife throughout the summer and now. Thanks also to Sandra for providing the impetus and editing of the above mentioned video. And thanks to Anthony Hurren who shared his lockdown nature video and won the cover place on the 2021 calendar.
The Lockdown Gallery on the website started in March was a huge success – thanks for kicking it off, John! And of course this fed naturally into the 2021 calendar with voting online that went surprisingly well. The sale of the 2021 calendar was very successful and thanks for spreading the resulting product far and wide. The price increased to £6.50 this year and we sold about half in just one of those glorious weekends in the park in July. Results in the Treasurer’s report THERE ARE STILL 3 LEFT! Contact werfsp@gmail.com to get one.
May the new year bring more activities back to the park and keep all those positive ones that you’ve discovered in 2020. Feel free to send any suggestions or concerns via the email address.
See you in the Park
Kris Inglis, Chair
Hmmm. Think about it. Then come to the AGM to discuss how we consider the habitats in our own Park.
For those of you who couldn’t attend, here is a summary of the business part of the meeting. The talk by Andy Brockman that followed it was very interesting and brought up questions for discussion. He has forwarded links for those of you who’d like more info …
Chair’s welcome by Kris Inglis
Kris ran through the year’s events so far and thanked all who had taken part or been involved in the organization
Maintenance of bird and bat boxes by members has been completed due to natural wear and tear as well as damage by other birds and squirrels. All ladder work is done in partnership with the council.
Kris mentioned a tree identification walk that local Beavers group have taken part in. It is hoped that Beavers, Cubs and Scouts will help with some grounds maintenance in the park and which will in turn enable them achieve badges to recognize their efforts.
A Brighton parks group had heard about our water fountain installation and have been in contact to find out about the fundraising aspects and process.
Kris ended by asking that Friends of the park continue to respect and appreciate the space and encourage others to do so.
The management committee was introduced. All agreed to re-stand and were voted in unanimously*. If anyone is interested in joining the committee they are welcome to come along to a meeting and decide whether they’d like to contribute.
Treasurer’s Report
Sonja O’Sullivan circulated and spoke to the annual accounts, taking questions at the end. A Parksfest grant from the council for the summer festival helped pay for a number of things but the underspend will be returned in due course.
A discussion covering the promotion of the event and the need for a generator followed and the management committee agreed to take the feedback on board.
New activities for next year were detailed and welcomed.
The committee will canvass opinion on the next improvement project for the park via email.
The business meeting over, our guest speaker Andy Brockman spoke on addressing heritage crime locally.
https://www.police.uk/search/?
This is the page for the Shooters Hill Neighbourhood Team [As you can see they cover Shrewsbury Park, Eaglesfield, and Oxleas].
https://www.police.uk/
This looks at the issue of Heritage Crime in broad terms,
https://historicengland.org.
This is a guide to reporting a heritage crime [the same principles apply to a wildlife or environmental crime too]. https://historicengland.org.
This is a guide to making sites more secure. It is mostly about buildings, but there is also material which is useful in talking about securing open spaces like Shrewsbury Park. Worth quoting if speaking to the Council or Police about any security issues
You are invited to our AGM to be held in Shrewsbury House. If you have recently joined this is an excellent chance to find out what the Friends do and how you can be active.
This is the Police UK Crime statistics site which will show what is going on in your area. Just enter the post code you are interested in.