You got a friend: some of today’s Friends of Littleheath Woods after a recent work party. It is 30 years since Croydon’s first ‘friends’ group was established
Thirty years ago this month, a group of residents got together with the support of a conservation charity to form the first of Croydon’s “friends groups” – the Friends of Littleheath Woods.
TCV = The Conservation Volunteers – is a national charity that works, as the name suggests, with community volunteers to look after outdoor spaces. It has had a presence in Croydon since the 1980s.
In late 1993 Pat Crooke, a Selsdon resident, attended one of the TCV workdays to help clean up a pond in Littleheath Woods. Crooke was so moved by what she saw that she wrote a report about the poor state of the woodland and submitted it to the Selsdon Residents’ Association.
The report led to much discussion and eventually a meeting was set up between TCV and the RA, and Pat Crooke was invited to attend. It was decided to set up a group of volunteers who would support Croydon Council in looking after the woods and also act as advocates on behalf of the woods. In other words, to act as friends of the woods.
In November 1995, the Friends of Littleheath Woods was officially established. Its first committee included Pat Crooke and Ian Leggatt, who today is the chair of the Friends group. Crooke, Leggatt and the other committee members began canvassing for other work party volunteers and managed to find around 20 people to attend the initial training.
To start with, TCV led the work parties in the woods and provided the tools and equipment needed for the work. This allowed time for the Friends group to build their skills, knowledge and acquire equipment of their own. By November 1996, Crooke was equipped and trained to lead the first Friends midweek work party of five people.
Tuesday morning work parties have continued to be held weekly ever since, weather and safety issues permitting.
On the map: in its 64 acres, Littleheath Woods in Selsdon has a variety of habitats
When Pat Crooke was no longer able to lead the working parties, that responsibility passed on to Chris Hyde, who still runs them to this day.
Pat Crooke remained involved, however, and continued encouraging and training volunteers and sharing her great knowledge until she died, aged 87, in October 2020.
Over the years, more than 50 volunteers have been regulars at the work party, as well as numerous shorter-term and one-off participants. Today, there’s usually around 10 volunteers every week.
The Friends group undertakes a wide variety of activities including keeping pathways open, maintaining the ponds and fields, installing signs and benches, they have even planted an orchard and coppiced hazel trees. The Friends group also works with Croydon Council on larger projects such as “ride widening”, to open up larger pathways in some parts of the woods to create new habitat areas.
There is also a wide variety of roles people play in the Friends group.
The working parties include volunteers just starting out through to those who have years of experience, or have trained in specialist tasks like using chainsaws or herbicides. Others support the work of the Friends through undertaking surveys of flora and fauna in the woods.
1995 and all that: some of the first Friends of Littleheath Woods. Back row, from left – Wendy Ware, Colin Caines, Paul Ware, Martin Taylor, Ian Leggatt, Eileen Stevenson; bottom row – Lauren Ware (the only one pictured not on the first committee), Pat Crooke, Graham Meadows
There are others who take on the administration work on the Friends group committee, and many local households support the Friends through paying an annual £5 subscription.
Full details of all of the Friends’ activities and ways to help can be found on their website https://www.folw.co.uk/
“It has been a privilege to be involved with the care and conservation of Littleheath Woods, to have met so many lovely, kind and caring people who freely give their time and efforts to help the Friends of Littleheath Woods to thrive and grow,” Ian Leggatt said.
“We’re happy to continue to preserve this green lung of Selsdon for the benefit of the community and those to come.
“Thank you to the dog walkers who advise us of fallen trees that have blocked paths.
“Thank you to the litter pickers who, throughout the year, are keeping the woods clean.
“And thank you to our members and fundraisers who support us in our efforts.”
Read more: Council’s official record of the history of Littleheath Woods
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Pat Crooke was also a Croydon Tree Warden back around the same time as the Croydon Friends groups started [and I beg to correct you, the Friends of Foxley were instituted by John Bishop, Geoff Clarke and Robin George in 1992]. I attended with Pat the Tree Warden training sessions provided by TCV, The Tree Council and Croydon Council on Saturdays, in the Town Hall in the mornings, followed by practical sessions. At one time we managed to muster 130 people including tree wardens, Friends group members and their families for mass tree planting at Ashburton playing fields, and Wilford Road park in central Croydon. As a qualified pharmacist Pat passed the NPTC pesticides course easily and we prepared several planting sites together, spot spraying off weeds and turf for the trees. A very modest, kind and capable lady.
I spent hundreds, maybe thousands of hours of my childhood playing in Littleheath Woods in the 70’s and early 80’s having grown up on Monks Hill estate. Strangely, I don’t think we knew it had a name-certainly we never knew the open space was called “Fallen Oak Field”! I want to extend a personal thanks to anyone and everyone who has been or is currently involved in voluntary work to maintain this special place.