What a week I’ve had! Last Saturday I celebrated my 70th birthday with over 100 friends and family in attendance. It was an eventful day with plenty of food, drinks and live music.
As for the start of the week, my wife Dawn booked us into the Bells Country Club, Coleford in the Forest of Dean for a couple of days with the aim of visiting some local attractions - one of which was Puzzlewood.
Puzzlewood, is a unique and ancient woodland in the heart of the Forest of Dean. The wood is a rare temperate rainforest and famous as a popular filming location – having featured in television series such as Merlin or feature films such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Secret Garden (2020).
It was an amazing place to see, especially smelling the wild garlic and seeing a blue haze of bluebells running throughout the wood. It certainly had an enchanting feel about the place as we walked through the mile and half of paths that maze through the woods.
Puzzlewood has a fascinating history too; it was used for the mining of iron ore in Roman times, then nature reclaimed the workings until the early 1800s. At this time, a local landowner laid down pathways which meandered through the trees and gulleys to open up this ancient forest, originally for the amusement of his friends and children. Since then, Puzzlewood has remained essentially unchanged, a wild wood preserved for future generations to enjoy.
While staying at the Bells Country Club I managed to meet up with the three greenkeepers who are tasked with maintaining this 18-hole parkland course.
I was keen to find out how they managed to achieve so much with only three members of staff. Tom Garland is the head greenkeeper and is assisted by Alan and Will.
Tom has been at the club two years having previously worked at other golf courses, following gaining valuable experience working as a volunteer at the Forest of Arden GC during the Seniors UK European master tournament.
The club recently changed ownership with the new owners SKL Leisure (Calico) who are a local company taking charge last November. Tom was keen to say that the new owners are keen to invest in the club, having already refurbished the clubhouse and recently having invested in seven Husqvarna robotic mowers - which Tom says has helped enormously to reduce their workload.
The robots are set to mow fairways and rough areas, with a new 4-wheel drive robot for the steep banks. Last week they managed to complete their spring renovations of the greens, scarifying, seeding and top dressing. As for maintaining the course, they have a fleet of Baroness mowers, and the greens are generally cut daily throughout the growing season with HOC varying from 5mm down to 3.8 mm. Fairways are kept at around 15mm with tees set at 10mm. Bunkers are raked daily and between them they work a weekend rota.
All the greens are clay soil pushed up greens with little or no drainage and perform very well considering the amount of golf traffic the course gets throughout the year.
As for feeding and applying wetting agents, they recently teamed up with Avoncrop for the supply of all their products and use a local machinery dealer Revills in Coleford.
What struck me was how well they worked as a team and how well they got on with one another. Tom was keen to say that the new owners seem keen to see the course vastly improve which can only be a good thing. Hopefully this will lead to future opportunity to perhaps employ more staff and resources that would help them put the polish on this golf course. With only three of staff, I was told it was a never relenting task to keep the course playable 360 days a year.
I enjoyed my two days at the resort and wish Tom and his staff a bright future and hopefully I can return sometime soon to see how they are getting on.
Green Flag judging
Last week I also had another couple of open spaces to judge for this year’s Green Flag Awards. Both site were in Walsall near Birmingham - one was Grenfell allotments and the other was Swannies Field, a public park.
It was nice to see an allotment site being put forward for a Green Flag Award as they are an essential community asset. This site had over 90 plots, a bee colony and a stream running through. Like all allotments they attract a wide range of allotment holders, who all have a unique way of growing vegetables and flowers using a wide range of growing techniques.
The allotment site is run by volunteers who offer help and support. The site has a shop where seeds and composts can be bought. The site also has a community poly tunnel for school groups to learn propagating skills. A new set of public toilets have been installed with a room for meetings etc.
No doubt in the coming months the allotment site will become a haven for flowers, fruits and vegetables. Well over 100 people attend this allotment each week, so for me they are a valuable asset for the local community.
The other site, Swannies Field, again was an important public amenity offering a range of facilities that included play equipment a multi games area and gym equipment. The site is cared for by Walsall Council and a strong friends group led by Stella - who is the main point of contact for all the volunteers and spends a lot of time picking up litter on a daily basis. She has been involved with the park for well over twenty years and knows most of the regulars who use the park.
As I have said on numerous occasions, how can you put a price on these valuable open spaces? For me it is about time the government recognise the real value of these local amenity parks and open spaces and made them a statuary service.
As for the rest of the week, I been organising a few future visits to local machinery dealers and will be attending a couple of press events.
