A COUPLE of days after the Bicester North revamp we were celebrating the 20th birthday of Sonning Common Green Gym, the first one to be established by Dr. William Bird and colleagues.

The group marked this by inviting all the Oxfordshire Green Gyms, including Reading, Newbury and Thatcham to join them in a great scrub bash on Watlington Hill on February 8.

This is a National Trust nature reserve with fantastic views over the Oxfordshire plain, and we were provided with plenty of work by reserve warden Jerry Page, who was marking his own celebration in retiring from the job.

There were bonfires with jacket potatoes baking in the ashes for lunch at the end of the session. Dr. William Bird, who started up the Green Gym idea, was at the session as well as the current leader of The Conservation Volunteers (TCV) who manage the setting up of new Green Gym groups.

In fact the title 'Green Gym' is now protected and shouldn’t be used for the outdoor exercise equipment often found in parks.

All gave inspirational words of encouragement. Dr. Bird said: “I used to have axes and loppers in my surgery alongside my medical equipment – all very disconcerting for any patients coming in for minor surgery.”

At the end of the day we cut and burned a huge amount of scrub (for which the wild flowers will be grateful in the course of time), new friendships formed and no tools were lost.

As usual with Green Gym the tea break and lunch were high points (literally), overlooking the views with the red kite birds flying overhead. In all, there were 49 people and 6 Green Gyms on the site.

I can see no reason why we won’t be celebrating again in 10 years time with even more people having caught the bug for fresh air and exercise.

As someone said on the day, “Why lift weights you don’t need to lift at a conventional gym, when you can do something constructive and tangible using hand tools on a meaningful project with Green Gym?”