News and Pictures 2025

June 2025

Confidence Course Helmet Box Broken-
And Repaired.... And Strengthened

For safety reasons, we supply helmets which must be worn by anyone using the Confidence Course.   Without the helmets, the equipment cannot be used.

Just a few weeks ago, we had to replace the box containing the helmets for the Confidence Course was broken and had to be replaced.   Unfortunately, the replacement was also broken with the lid in two pieces and the hinges shattered.

Determined to beat the 'vandals', we have built a wooden outer shell and added a strengthened padlock..

New Compost Area - Charles River, Portishead

A group from Charles River Laboratories in Portishead joined us for the day to construct 2 new compost 'bins'.

We have a lot of cuttings and other green waste from work we carry out keeping the site in great condition for our visitors.

None of this 'waste' goes to waste (pun intended).   We keep as much as we can and compost it to feed to the young trees and hedges around the campsite.

The volunteers constructed these enclosures......

....... and, just a week later we put them to good use, filling one of the enclosures with hedge trimmings freshly cut that day.

Missing Section Of Boundary Path - University of Bristol Data Team

A group from the University of Bristol Data team joined us for a day to support us in creating a new section of the Boundary Path.

This path will connect the existing sections and will enable anyone to walk the entire boundary from the car park to the Heritage Area housing our replica mining equipment.

Highlands Development Complete

After months of work by the volunteer team, the two new campsites in the Highlands are ready for occupation.  So, if sleeping in hammocks in the outside air, or wild camping is your thing,  Take a look at our dedicated page to see what's on offer.

May 2025

Ping Identity team Volunteer at Glenny Wood for the Day

On Tuesday 13th May As part of the IT experts Ping Identity's World wide Volunteering day 12 team members from the Bristol office, supported by Phil W from the Glenny team had a fabulous day undertaking further developments to the Highlands Area

The team build a "Dead" Hedge, which was around 20 metres long and is a great natural feature for this area. 

The team work was fabulous and they achieved so, so much. Many thanks to all the team volunteering and working hard at creating the Dead Hedge. Some pictures below

So what is a dead Hedge??

• A dead hedge is a wonderful habitat that's full of life. Dead hedges provide hiding places and nesting habitats for all sorts of creatures, as well as food for insects.
• As it rots down, the nutrients are recycled back into the earth below, meaning your garden 'waste' needn't go into garden bins or bonfires.
• Creating a dead hedge is an ongoing activity, which can be added to every time you prune a tree or cut back a shrub.
• Small mammals, birds and spiders find shelter in the upper layers, whilst the soft rotting wood below is a perfect home for beetles and fungi.
• These busy critters feed off the wood and return its nutrients back into the soil. Recycling our wood in this way creates diverse habitats.
• By not disturbing this Hedge area, you are helping to support a healthy ecosystem.

Confidence Course Helmet Box Replaced

The volunteers arrived to find the box in which the helmets for the Confidence Course are stored was damaged beyond repair.

As you can see in the picture, the lid is in pieces.

Fortunately we were able source a replacement box and the helmets are safely stored inside it. 

It is really important that all visitors treat the equipment with care.   

If any damage occurs, please report it immediately, so that the team can repair/replace as necessary.

Highlands Development continues

We continue to develop the Highlands area with the Shed divided into two parts with the Ladies / Girls loo at one end and the store section at the near side, which has shelves for storage of Wild Camping equipment. To the side of the shed with additional fencing as seen below is the Urinal area for the Mens and Lads. (No 2's in the main site toilets please)

Both the Pine and Cedar Plateaus have had campfires installed as well.

"Sulky Seat" Tree Takes A Kicking 

April 2025

Highlands making great progress

We are progressing well with the highlands wild camping area and this should be ready for June with all the other works taking place.

Most recent progress is the marking out and putting up hammock points and testing out the bivy bags. The floor for the loo / store shed has been put in place, and levelled, and the shed for this area has been put up and treated and fitted out.

Grass Cutting

On a beautiful last day of April we cut the grass, and strimmed a lot of the site. this tidied the site up again and it looks really good. With the grass cut and the bluebells now out the site looks glorious as per pictures below....

Grass Sledges

This activity has had quite a makeover over the past few weeks. We have now put up a shed by the course and the grass sledges are stored there. 

The actual course has been greatly improved with a 6 metre Artificial Grass run below the decking for the Grass Sledges to run on. The launching platform has been levelled and artificial grass has covered this area.

The Grass Sledges should now run even better than ever and not be effected so much by the weather.....

Happy Sledging...

Our Environment

We continue to look to improve the site, how it looks and how we can positively impact on the environment. So recently we have planted 35 mature trees and 420 small saplings in the site, so looking to future proof the site as we manage our current Woodlands. In addition we continue to improve the new stream area, and beside it have planted wild flowers which we hope will grow into a great display. The ground was so dry it needed watering as we planted.

What else has been happening to ensure the smooth running of our site

Lots of maintenance task has been progress - these include

• Weekly checks taking place
• Full change of numbering for our numeric locks
• Dismantling of the Aerial Runway as it is now closed.
• Clearing areas with the Strimmer.
• Repaired the Confidence Course Helmet box and lock.

• Andy fixed starter motor on red tractor running and starting like a dream 🌟 

• Marc strimmed car park bank, kart track and bank, historic area to Wetlands path on boundary walk

• PAT testing completed,

• Copsed Hazel stakes made ready for volunteering day in May. 

• Completed wild flower seeding, by the stream

• Clear Aerial Runway shed, fencing and A frame
• Repairs to Tunnels intersection boxes
• Mow the Grass around Gas Tank and remove fallen small branches
• Repair the Activities Shed floor
• Highlands extension commenced and work undertaken cutting a route through.
• patio area tidied and brushed up.

March 2025

Trees - Thatchers Cider Ltd donate 10 Apple Trees to Glenny Wood

As part of the Thatchers Community Orchard Project 2025 I applied for a 10 trees donation from Thatchers to plant at Glenny Wood. The response was - 

Dear Phil - Congratulations! Your application for Glenny Wood Scout Campsite - Gordano District Scouts has been selected to receive 10 apple trees from the Thatchers Community Orchard Project!

We have been blown away by the quality of the entries and the passion people have shown, across the country, for planting and tending to a community orchard. We loved your entry and are pleased to be able to offer you ten trees for your project.

We will be fencing off the Orchard area with hedging plants shortly although access to the Gordano Activities Plateau, Tunnels etc and Maple Campfire will be there. More photos and details as March progresses on....

Trees - Saplings donated by the Woodlands Trusted planted

Thank you to the 2nd Clevedon Scouts who planted them

Woodlands Trust have donated 420 small (50 centimetre) saplings to Glenny. We have planted these to form a new hedge between Apple plateau and our new Apple Orchard. We have also planted the saplings between the trees planted along side the new stream area and as essential infill on hedges planed over the last 2 years or so.

These saplings will look fabulous especially in 3 / 4 years time as they grown into a strong hedge....

The saplings to create the new hedge were planted by Scouts from the 2nd Clevedon Scout Group on Tuesday evening the 18th March. The Scouts were supported by their leadership team along with Tony, Jill and Andy from the Glenny team. A fabulous job done, many thanks to the Scouts for supporting Glenny Wood.

Many thanks to the Woodlands Trust for their support

Glenny Wood Historical Area

In this area over the capped mine works we have simulated old coal mining sheave wheel mechanism, to give an impression of what this looked like back in the 18th century....

There are also information boards explaining the history, working conditions and production.

Grass Cutting

It's March and we have managed a full tractor grass cut of the site. Mark streamed the banks and plateau edges on all the stepped plateaus. We were able to complete this grass cutting, much earlier than normal due to the recent dry weather. Plateaus and areas looking good

Other Maintenance Tasks undertaken in March 

New Trees

More new trees for Glenny Wood. All the 24 new trees have now been planted, as per "Phil W's plan", in various places around the site although mainly alongside to new stream route and on the cleared are overlooking the Glenny Adventure Zone, which includes the confidence course. Mulch has been put around the trees on the ground and our Glenny style animal protection which also allows for growth has been put around them. The mound of earth by new bridge has been raked down to profile to the new stream.

Give this part of our campsite a couple of years of growth, this will be a spectacular area at Glenny Wood....

This is a further investment in our woodlands of over £1k.

New Bridge Across the stream

When we re-routed the stream we put up a temporary bridge. This has now been replaced by a new bridge at the crossing point used for many a year. A much improved access path to and from the bridge has been created so it's much safer and easy to use.

January 2025

More Timber Shifted

A lot of timber was cut up from the fallen tree above the loos and this has been split and stored in the wood pile ready for use in a few months time.

Around the site there have been repaired undertaken to the tunnel ends on the confidence course, and brambles cleared along the boundary trail.

Shed for Grass Sledges

We have built a shed beside the Grass Sledge track. This means the Grass Sledges and Helmets will be stored in this area, so much more convenient for this activity.

Trees

We have ordered 24 trees to be planted in the next month or so and a further 420 tree saplings are on the way to us donated by the Woodland Trust, to be planted in March and mainly used to create hedging for our orchard area at the Tunnels end of Apple plateau.

The trees we planted a couple of years ago have grown well and we now have been able to remove the green plastic tree protection, so the trees are looking great and as they grow a fabulous avenue will be created.

Woodland Management

To ensure we maintain the site at its best keep nature under control with great scars on the countryside as you see in many places, we continue to strip all year around.

Recently the areas above the loos, around Hazel and Hawthorn Plateaus, in front and behind the Tunnels plus above the Kart course and snowball court have all be tidied up, ready for the growth in the spring! looking very neat,

News and Pictures from past years

Glenny Wood Annual Reviews

Photos of Glenny Wood