Friends of Walled Garden and Woods

16/04/2026

A quick litter pick near the pond today with a DoE volunteer. Obvious repeat offenders but not too bad. Just one bin bag.

11/03/2026

Here's a great aerial photo from 1945, featuring the reservoir that is now the Walled Garden at the top right, and the original strip of trees that are still there today at the entrance to Oakwood Gate Park.

Parkers Farm is also visible, right at the very top.

Source Historic England Archive (RAF photography)

01/03/2026

A before into after video - we cut back the self-seeded growth that had been gradually encroaching over recent years, opening up the entrance to the park.

01/03/2026

A couple of photos from this afternoon’s volunteering session.

We tidied up the steps down to the pond, swept the boardwalk, cut back a lot of self-seeded growth at the entrance to the park and collected two bags of litter.

Thanks again to our local Forest Park Ranger Dave for his great work on the steps and boardwalk and for supplying all the kit and PPE.

A great afternoon to be out in the woods helping to keep on top of things. Every little helps.

25/02/2026

Spring is nearly here and the bulbs planted a few years ago make a nice entrance to Oakwood Gate.

We’ve got a volunteering session this Sunday at 1pm where we’ll be doing a bit of general tidying up of the recent growth before the leaves start to appear.

Fancy getting out in the fresh air for a couple of hours and helping keep this area welcoming? Meet us here just before 1pm, all tools and PPE provided and there’ll be a safety briefing too. Accompanied kids welcome and can help litter pick at the ideal time of year.

01/06/2025

3 bin bags collected.

30/03/2025

Another 3 bags collected today.

A lot less litter to collect but some obvious repeat offenders chucking litter off the bridge, sitting on the step by the pond or having a smoke on the bike path.

We are still waiting for the council to pick up the barriers their contractors left in the woods.
😱😱😱

We left one bin bag on Birchwood Town Council s usual run on local bins. Thanks for that. And 2 for Birchwood High School to dispose off.

We then walked to Birchwood Shopping Centre to get some mother's day presents. The walk in was very scrappy. Any chance you could do another litter pick Birchwood Shopping Centre?

16/03/2025

5 bin bags collected on today's litter pick with DoE Alex.

We took a different route ro the woods via P T Riley at Heathfield Nursery . The route was pretty litter free but bizarrely we found a bin bag of rubbish already collected just by the cycle track near Birchwood Town Council which we put next to their bin. Ignoring the litter we spotted some flowering Celandine

By the time we reached The Woodland Trust woods near Oakwood we had collected a hoover attachment , a rake and another bin bag. We couldn't manage the hoover so we left it by houses near Powell Ave - hopefully someone will bin it. We left the bin bag at the end of the Woodland Trust bit on Ordnance avenue. It was a shame to see the state of the small pond on Ordnance avenue so neglected and full of litter but as its owned by Warrington Borough Council and not Woodland Trust we left it.

The Woodland Trust woods were quite litter free except by the pond near Birchwood Fire Station where we found piles of abandoned clothes presumably cast offs from the clothing recycling at the fire station.

There was a fair amount of litter at the fire station too but we had run out of bags. That might make a good community effort for them.

09/03/2025

Today we concentrated on getting litter in those hard to reach places on The Woodland Trust areas near the walled garden.

I've been moaning to local councillors for some time about the state under the Birchwood High School pedestrian bridge where the litter is dropped off the bridge into brambles. The feedback was it wasnt safe to access. So we wanted to see how easy it was to prune back the brambles to get to the litter.

So 1 and half hours later Alex and I had managed to do our usual walk to the walled garden wood and round the pond (easy bit) and then pruned our way through brambles. It wasn't easy but it was manageable with loppers and leather gauntlets.

We got about 4 bin bags worth and rather worryingly we also found plastic degrading into microplastics so unless we collect litter in those hard to reach places we will get microplastic contaminated soil.

Now it's over to you Birchwood Town Council and Birchwood Shopping Centre . I think to get that area under the bridge clear you'll need to clear the brambles and then go in. Thanks for all your help so far. Give us a shout if you need help but currently as Woodland Trust volunteers we can only do Woodland Trust land.

Thanks again Birchwood Town Council for litter picking on paths in our local area and picking up what we collect. We left the collected waste by the bus stop which sadly was surrounded by litter in hard to reach places too.