September 2026
Since getting started in August, volunteers have now worked on the site on four separate occasions, contributing more than 60 hours between them – and the difference is already pretty remarkable.
A much clearer, safer Hollow
Our first priority has been opening up the site and tackling years of neglect.
Between us, we’ve cut back or raised the canopies of the large laurels, dug out substantial amounts of bramble, bindweed and other weeds, started clearing the ivy from around the oak, and given the whole site a very thorough litter pick.
We’ve filled well over a dozen bags with rubbish, as well as removing everything from bottles and plastic waste to abandoned suitcases. A big thank you to the Knoll Residents’ Association litter-picking team for helping with that effort too.
The clearance work has also generated an enormous amount of green waste. At one stage we had three huge piles waiting to be taken away. We’re extremely grateful to our local councillors for helping us get this sorted, and to Bromley Council and idverde for arranging the collection and removal. Inevitably, we’ve already started creating another pile!
The most encouraging thing has been the reaction from people using the path. We’ve had lots of comments about how much clearer, tidier and safer it already feels – including from long-standing residents who say they can’t remember the site looking this open and cared-for in decades.
And this is still only the clearance stage.
The next big step: the oak garden
There is still more of the laurel to come out. In October we’ll be meeting our new council contact for Friends groups on site, and we hope to get the go-ahead for the next stage of work.
Local tree surgeon James Hardy of Hardy Tree Services has very generously offered his time and labour free of charge to help us. Subject to council approval, James will grind out the remaining laurel stumps and work on the oak, including removing the dead ivy extending high into its canopy and carrying out any appropriate tidying work.
We hope to get that done towards the end of October.
Once the stumps are out, we can start creating the first proper planted area of Hillview Hollow.
The plan is to create a large semicircular woodland bed around the oak, edged with logs kindly donated by Steve Sangster from his own woodland. We’ll mulch the area and plant it with a mixture of shade-loving perennials and woodland bulbs, including geraniums, epimediums, hellebores, cyclamen, snowdrops, wood anemones and daffodils (see Our Plans).
And beyond the oak…
We’re also seeking approval to replace the remaining laurels with a mixed native hedge running along Hillview Hollow.
That will create a much more attractive long-term boundary while providing food, shelter and nesting habitat for wildlife. Together with the new planting around the oak, it should start to make the Hollow feel less like a piece of land we’ve cleared and much more like the woodland-edge garden we’ve been imagining.
More than £2,000 raised
Another piece of very good news is that, thanks to an incredibly generous response from local people – together with support and match funding through the Knoll Residents’ Association – we have now raised more than £2,000 for Hillview Hollow.
That means we can start turning the plans into reality: buying plants and bulbs, bringing in mulch and other materials, establishing the hedge and continuing to improve the site.
Hillview Hollow is entirely volunteer-led and community-funded, so every donation and every hour given on site genuinely makes a difference.
Finally, a huge thank you to everyone who has volunteered, donated, lent equipment, shifted rubbish, cut back vegetation, shared advice or simply stopped to say something encouraging.
We’ve already made a very visible difference. The exciting bit now is that we’re moving from clearing Hillview Hollow to creating Hillview Hollow.
