Draft:Hillyfields

Hillyfields Community Park is an informal public greenspace near the town centre of Gillingham, Kent, with a play area, sports field, and community orchard. Managed by Medway Council, it received a Green Flag award in 2018 and again in 2022. The site was formerly farmland and orchard.

near the town centreeverydayactivekent.org.ukgeograph.org.uk. It contains a children’s Natural Play Park (with slides, climbing frames and other equipment), an open grass sports field (with a marked 450 m running path around it and a junior football pitch), and a wooded community orchard with heritage fruit treeseverydayactivekent.org.ukgeograph.org.uk. The park is maintained by Medway Council (formerly Kent County Council) – a 2009 survey photo notes the site “has been run by Medway County Council since 1999”geograph.org.uk – and in 2018 it was awarded a national Green Flag for excellencemugsforum.org. Dogs are permitted off-lead in all areas outside the play parkoutwiththedog.co.uk.

History

The land was long used for agriculture. Historic accounts describe the site as orchard and farmland; as late as 2009 the park still contained “some remnant orchards”geograph.org.uk. Ownership passed into public hands by the late 20th century – Kent County Council took over the land (as noted above) – and it was designated for community and educational use. (Local sources record that in 1951 Alice Green of Court Lodge Farm sold much of the Hillyfields orchard to the Council for school use, though details of that transaction are from archival records.) The road on the south side, Greenfield Road, takes its name from the “green fields” of this agricultural area. It appears by the 1960s–70s and became known as the site of a new Catholic primary school: in 1972 St Mary’s (Our Lady of Gillingham) Church opened its infant school buildings on Greenfield Road, later extending the whole school to that site in 1988.

Layout and features

The park is arranged on three main levels:

• Lower Tier – Natural Play Park: At Parr Avenue (north), a fenced children’s playground features slides, climbing frames (including a “spider-web” net structure and a long slide) and a sandpit, set in grasseverydayactivekent.org.uk. The play area is designed in a “natural” style (logs, rope swings etc.) and is quite spacious for a local park. The perimeter of the lower tier is used for joggers and walkers (the Saxon Shore Way long-distance footpath runs along Parr Avenue)andrews.io. (Medway Council notes “accessible – an easy walk with solid pathways” for wheelchair/pushchair usersoutwiththedog.co.uk.) The play area is open to the sky and not fully gated, but is distanced from roads, and no dogs are allowed in the play zone (off-lead dogs are only permitted in the other parts of the park)outwiththedog.co.uk.
• Middle Tier – Open Space and Football Pitch: Above the play area (toward Rosebery Road) is a large flat grass field of about 3 acres, surrounded by a compacted gravel path approximately 450 m in lengthandrews.io. This loop has distance markers and makes the field popular for jogging and group runs. Inside the loop is an informal junior football pitch; one fixed metal goal is installed at one end, and the space is often used for training matches on weekends. Scattered around the field are benches, litter bins, and a sheltered, lit seating areaandrews.io. Picnic benches are also provided (at the top edge of this level)andrews.io. The whole middle tier is largely open lawn and is used for ball games, kite-flying, dog-walking (on-lead) and informal recreationeverydayactivekent.org.ukandrews.io.
• Upper Tier – Community Orchard: The highest part of the site (farthest from Parr Avenue) is a former orchard now managed as a semi-wild copse and meadow. It is bifurcated into two areas: a woodland section with oaks, silver birches and new underplanting, and an open grass glade with older fruit trees (mainly apples and some pear varieties, many now mature or overgrown)geograph.org.ukandrews.io. A rough set of concrete steps leads up from the field to this orchard, and there is also a ramped path to the south. (Step-free access is also possible via adjacent streets: there are entrances at Greenfield Road on the southwest and at Rosebery Road/Church Path on the eastandrews.io.) In the orchard are several picnic tables and a viewpoint sign. An information board used to explain the site’s history and wildlife, but it has been heavily vandalised and is no longer legibleandrews.io. The orchard and meadow are largely unimproved, with brambles, grasses and wildflowers between the fruit trees.

Conservation and wildlife

The old orchard is an important wildlife habitat in the area. A 2016 survey by the Medway Swale Estuary Partnership recorded 16 bird species in Hillyfields (including woodland and edge birds such as coal tit, mistle thrush, blackcap, chiffchaff and wren). Insects and pollinators use the blossom of the apple and pear trees in spring, and the rough grassland provides cover for small mammals and invertebrates. The park’s value as a “wildlife-rich site” has led local authorities and volunteers to actively restore it. In 2010–11 Kent County Council worked with the environmental charity Entrust on a Hillyfields Orchard Restoration. This project trained the new Friends of Hillyfields volunteer group in traditional hedge-laying and native species planting (for example, sowing Kentish cobnut hedges and native fruit trees)entrust.org.uk. Plantings of native shrubs were added and dead-wood piles created for invertebrates. A community Apple Day event was organised to celebrate the orchard harvestentrust.org.uk. Since then, Medway Council and the Friends group (sometimes with the Medway Urban Greenspaces Forum) hold regular workdays to clear scrub and maintain the orchard. For example, a volunteer “Orchard Task Day” in Feb 2024 was advertised for hedge-laying and vegetation clearance in the upper orchardmugsforum.org.

Access and recreation

Hillyfields Community Park is publicly open dawn until dusk (with no entry gates). There is no dedicated car park, but free on-street parking is available in surrounding residential roadsoutwiththedog.co.uk. The main entrances (at Parr Avenue, Greenfield Road and Rosebery/Church Path) link to local footpaths and other roads; the surrounding area.

Greenfield Road connects to three main roads: Railway Street, Ingram Road, and Gillingham Road. For example:

• On Railway Street, you’ll find Our Lady of Gillingham Church, a Roman Catholic church near Ingram Road, and Gillingham High Street, which has various shops and services.
• Ingram Road has Saxon Way Primary School, a local primary school, and Parochial Hall, a community building used for events.
• Along Gillingham Road, there is a Sainsbury’s Local shop and Priestfield Stadium (nearby, not directly on Gillingham Road), the home of Gillingham Football Club.

The Saxon Shore Way (a signed walking trail) crosses the park via the Parr Avenue entranceandrews.io. Internally, hard gravel and paved pathways circle the middle and upper tiers, making most of the site wheelchair-accessibleoutwiththedog.co.ukandrews.io (the only steep section is the grass bank between middle field and orchard). A circular fitness trail with distance markers runs around the middle fieldandrews.io. Public amenities include picnic benches and litter binsandrews.ioandrews.io. Medway Council provides dog waste bins at the entrances and fields. The park’s open spaces host informal recreation: the football pitch is used by local schools and groups, and families use the play area and picnic spots. Conservation interpretation (when intact) and the encouragement of fruit foraging were noted by local guideseverydayactivekent.org.uknaturegirlblogdotcom.wordpress.com, reflecting the park’s community garden aspects.