Iremongers Pond in Wilford, has been named a Green Flag Award Community Winner for the fifteenth consecutive year, the prestigious national mark of quality for the very best parks and green spaces in the country.
The award recognises the site as a secluded natural haven offering conservation and recreational facilities, including angling, dog walking, bird watching, an orchard, and open space for picnics and social gatherings, all maintained entirely by volunteers through the Iremongers Pond Association.
It follows a year in which the Association expanded its Community Orchard by planting thirty assorted fruit trees, funded by members of the local community. Two dedicated planting days brought together pupils from Nottingham Emmanuel School, local residents, members of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Youth Association, and a local geocaching group to help with ground clearance, preparation, and planting.
The original orchard, planted in 2017, produced its best blossom display last spring and its best fruit crop last autumn, both well received by the local community and providing a boost to biodiversity in the area. Additionally, a Sakura Cherry Tree Grove was planted by local residents in 2020, with trees donated by the Japanese Embassy under the “Sakura Cherry Tree Project”.
Further conservation work, supported by Nottingham City Council and the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, saw invasive Himalayan balsam cleared and overhanging willow trees pruned. The Association also restored floating reed islands for nesting waterfowl, reinforcing the site’s reputation as a haven for local birdlife, as captured in recent images by a local wildlife photographer.
The award comes as Nottingham City Council celebrates a wider return to form for its parks, with 10 council-run sites this week securing Green Flag Awards and five Green Heritage Site Accreditations. The Iremongers Pond Association warmly welcomes that success and the hard work behind it, but notes that the city’s Green Flag Community Winners, sites kept to the same national standard entirely through volunteer effort and without council funding or paid staff, appear to have gone unmentioned in coverage of the announcement so far.
“Fifteen years of Green Flag status doesn’t happen by accident. It’s a huge credit to everyone who gives up their time, from our regular volunteers and committee members to the schools, community groups, and residents who joined our planting days this past year. Nottingham should be proud that it’s not just the council’s parks setting the national standard; it’s community groups like ours too, and we’d love to see that reflected when the city’s Green Flag success is celebrated.”
Bill Roughton, Chair of the Iremongers Pond Association
“Iremongers Pond is a brilliant example of what a community can achieve when people are prepared to turn up and do the work, year after year. I’ve been proud to be part of the committee and to get stuck in on action days alongside everyone else, but the site also presents real challenges given how secluded it is; we’ve had to deal with anti-social behaviour, including drug dealing, off-road vehicles, and fires, on top of the day-to-day upkeep. Fifteen consecutive Green Flag Awards are a fantastic reward for that effort, and it’s a site the whole community should be proud of.”
Cllr Andrew Rule, Clifton West Ward Councillor
The Green Flag Award scheme, run by environmental charity Keep Britain Tidy under contract from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, is the international benchmark for well-managed parks and green spaces. Its Community Award category specifically recognises sites managed by voluntary and community groups, all maintaining the same rigorous standards applied to local authority-run parks across the country.
