Not to be defeated...even by turnips

A group from the Finance team banded together to help out at LionMouth Rural Centre on a beautiful morning - could it be one of the 28 days of sunshine that we get between September and March. After enjoying coffee over a health and safety briefing, Nathan took the group on a tour of their land. It was fantastic to see the progression that had been made following previous challenges. The fish-pass was complete and the fence that St. John's College had started was really starting to take shape. 

Durham Business School Blitz Borders

A group from the University Business School met for a nice coffee in Maiden Castle, a great opportunity to get out of the office. And then they were dragged out into the frosty November morning, across the football pictures to the rarely ventured Old Durham Gardens. 

Riverside Clear-up

Rivers and other waterways surround us; acting as ecosystems, transport routes and quite often just a space where we can escape to. The numerous river paths frequented by dog-walkers, joggers and pram-pushing parents are testament to this. As such, it appears somewhat bizarre that we continue to use them as waste-disposal systems; seemingly loading their banks with all our unwanted items.

Many organisations have formed to help protect these much loved spaces; clearing up the area and reinvigorating the natural inhabitants. To ensure their work remains sustainable, a key role for them is education. By teaching young people about the purposes and potentials associated with our rivers, they are able to change lifestyle habits and inspire the continuation of conservation.

With assistance from the Canal-river Trust and Groundwork, staff and students came together to help clear up the riverbank near Queen’s Campus. They armed themselves with loppers and litter-pickers to attack the overgrowth and excessive rubbish.

Over the course of the morning the team collected many barrows of vegetation, ten bags of rubbish, a peculiar length of plastic and what Luke is convinced were the remains of a pirate ship. A member of the public walked passed and was shocked that all that rubbish had been collected in such a short stretch of river-way. Notable items included: a size 6 black croc; a pair of trainers; a chair back and an extraordinarily large quantity of polystyrene. 

Apple Harvest Day

Crabapples, rose hips, rowans and elderberries collected from Durham University English Department Garden

Another joint staff-student volunteering opportunity saw us team up with Fruitful Durham to harvest fruit from the University Grounds.


"Every year tonnes of freely available wild fruit goes to waste in and around Durham because as a society we have become increasingly reliant instead on purchasing fruit from supermarkets which has often been unnecessarily shipped thousands of miles. Many people no longer feel they have the knowledge or skills to use hedgerow crops, nor the time to find and collect it, and have lost an awareness of the seasonality of produce. This contributes to a massive global wastage of finite resources, supporting ultimately unsustainable lifestyles both here and in other countries and creating a lack of connection to the infinitely rich potential available within our own community. Fruitful Durham aims to offer a local solution to this problem."