Green-fingered volunteers have joined forces to clean up woodland in Mossley.

The Friends of Egmont Street held a conservation day on land near their base in Bottom Mossley. 

The group was set up in response to the decline of the area around the Egmont Street playing fields, due to graffiti, vandalism and a lack of funds for the local council to be able to sort the issues out. 

Since then they have created a garden which grows fruit and vegetables which they use to make produce to sell, with the proceeds ploughed back into the garden.

They recently held a woodland conservation day rescuing wild garlic bulbs from the area.

Lesley Arnold, from the friends’ group, said three boys joined in on the day as part of their JASS (Junior Award Scheme for Schools) qualification, which leads on to the Duke of Edinburgh scheme. They needed to do some community volunteering for their qualification.

She explained: “We had a hidden secret gem of a wild garlic grove in the woods.

“It was planted and tended to over the last 20 years by Andy Duncan, who had rescued the bulbs from various locations, where the bulbs would have been destroyed, had they stayed in situ. Very few of us knew about it, those that did took a few handfuls of leaves and left the plants to thrive.

“Unfortunately, somebody else found the grove this year, that wasn’t quite so considerate and they stripped the entire grove down to soil level. They took everything. A plan was hatched to wait until the autumn and move the bulbs to various new locations throughout the woods, to let them re-establish and thrive."

Lesley continued: “I got in touch with Andy and some of our other volunteers and we arranged the conservation day to move the garlic bulbs. 

“We had a proper woodland conservation day. Thomas, Harry and Josh came down to join us, along with their parents; Noah Cooke, our chief apprentice; and Antonio Amaral our chief volunteer. Andy Duncan was in charge,” she added. 

“We split into two teams - the first team with Andy, digging up the garlic plot and the rest of us in the second, preparing the ground at the new sites.

“In 20 years, those boys can walk through the woods, in the spring, point at the garlic plantation spilling down the slopes and say ‘I did that.’

“Our work was done with the full permission of the GreenSpace team of Tameside Council.”

Read more from the Tameside Reporter

Click here for more of the latest news

Click here to read the latest edition of the paper online

Click here to find out where you can pick up a copy of the paper