Plumstead Common Nature Reserve

Volunteer sessions take place for 2hrs from 11am on the last Saturday of each month. Please join us

Even now, a few local people probably may remain blissfully unaware of the gem in their midst, the Plumstead Common Nature Reserve – which is a real shame!

This tranquil wooded ravine feature is located adjacent to Azile Everitt House and the rear gardens of the houses in Blendon Terrace and can be accessed via entrances at the top of Vicarage Park and Bramblebury Road.

These days the reserve is a haven for nature and local residents too, but thirty-odd years ago, the site saw sorrier times when it was an unofficial dumping ground for all sorts of rubbish, including burnt-out cars and the like! In the early nineties, neighbours got together and cleared away the huge accumulation of rubbish, forming themselves into the Plumstead Common Environment Group at that time – which later became the Friends group we know today.

The upshot was that Greenwich Council was persuaded to designate the site as a nature conservation area in 1992, and in 2004 it was granted official status as a Site of Local Importance. It remains a wooded haven for a variety of bird life and the like, though fair to say, our volunteers' work remains essential to keeping it this way. Every month there's always litter picking needing doing, of course. Plus, there's always cutting back, pruning and the like, too, for those volunteers wanting to undertake this type of work.

New volunteers are always made very welcome. Group volunteers work in conjunction with RBG, for example, if we need help with removing any occasional major fly-tip on the site. The latest project that we will most certainly need help with, one way or another, is rebuilding the two flights of access steps to the reserve – the present ones being rather dilapidated!