The Haysden Country Park Volunteer Group are working on a wonderful project to enhance an area of woodland at Haysden Country Park and are appealing for financial support from the people of Tonbridge as well as from the park’s many visitors.

The project is the regeneration of Heusenstamm/Friendship Wood which is situated alongside the River Medway in the western part of the park. The wood was planted after the 1987 hurricane and was funded by a generous donation from Heusenstamm, Tonbridge’s twin town in Germany. Since then, the wood has become strongly established but overgrown in places and needed much work to improve it. Visitors to the area will have noticed that a limited tree felling programme has been started to bring more light and space to the wood and make it possible for lost plants to re-emerge and for new plants to thrive. An attractive pathway is being made through the wood to protect the plants.

Last autumn, thanks to a donation from the Heusenstamm Friendship Group in Tonbridge, 2,000 bluebell bulbs were planted by the volunteers. Some bluebells have flowered this spring but the project is long term and it is hoped that eventually the wood will be carpeted in a sea of blue – Tonbridge’s very own bluebell wood.

Many more thousands of bulbs are needed to achieve this aim and to this end, the Volunteer Group are asking for donations to enable the bulbs to be purchased. The group rely on donations and occasional fund raising for their projects and will be very grateful for all contributions to the Bluebell Fund. The priority planting will be bluebells but if the donations received make it possible then primroses, wood anemonies and other beautiful woodland flowers can be planted as well.