Earlier this year the Friends of William Clarke Park contacted the Council about the poor condition of the netting around the basketball and football court at the bottom of the Patch. It had completely come away in some places and large holes had been torn by overgrown vegetation and heavy use.
After a delay for a tendering process, new high quality fencing has now been erected meaning many fewer lost footballs and lots more scope for the next potential generation of Brighton Albion superstars to practice their skills!
Thank you to our local councillors for their help in making this happen.
After a long, hot summer, it is good to see fresh grass and clover turning The Patch green again as we look forward to the vibrant reds and browns of Autumn.
There’s been plenty happening in the park over the summer. In June the Patch Picnic brought together local families and older residents, helping to make new friendships and rekindle old ones. There are few more pleasant sounds than children happily playing in the park on a summer’s day!
In July, a team of local volunteers restored the dried-out wildlife pond at the top of the park. A series of dry summers, combined with a leaking pond liner, had reduced it to little more than a muddy puddle. The volunteers spent a very warm weekend clearing out the pond, replacing the liner and refilling it with water.
We hope the restored pond will once again provide a haven for newts, frogs, insects and other wildlife, while offering local residents and schoolchildren the chance to enjoy and learn a little about nature close to home. The hard work of our volunteers was covered in The Argus here.
When the evenings started to get dark a little earlier, our Bat Walk in August was a big success. Richard Howorth and the team entertained adults and children alike with an introductory talk and a quiz drawn up by local bat ecologist Colin Higgins. He wasn’t the only expert! It was great to see just how much some of the young people already knew about bats. Everyone really enjoyed seeing them in flight and hearing them with the help of a bat detector, while the younger children took delight in being up after bedtime for some twilight playtime in the park.
One parent said: “I came along with my partner and daughter (who loves bats!). We found out about it from my daughter’s bestie’s mum, who lives nearby and visits The Patch regularly. We all came along together. Rich gave a wonderful talk and we were delighted to see some bats.Thank you so much for a lovely couple of hours“
The Patch is a beautiful and welcoming space forboth people and wildlife, and local community group Friends of William Clarke Park is dedicated to protecting and improving it. Our activities only happen because local people get involved and share their time and talents. There is lots more that we would love to do and we need your help to make those things happen. Come along to the the Pepper Rooms at The Islingword Tavernfrom 7.30pm onThursday November 12th, to enjoy the annual members’ meeting and social get together. You’ll hear about opportunties to get involved in future events, including Spring in the Patch 2027. It would be great to see you there.
If you are up and about early or enjoy a stroll around the park before dark, you will probably have seen our local foxes on patrol. But when every sensible person is tucked up in bed, the Patch badgers make their nightly rounds. And if they get bored with the park itself, they make more than an occasional visit to the neigbouring gardens.
A consolation for a bout of insomnia for one Bonchurch Road resident was spotting this nocturnal visitor sniffing for worms in the early hours. “The garden was full of holes in the morning” he said ruefully “but I suppose it is good for the soil in the long run!”
And the bees!
Towards the top of the Patch you may have spotted low flying bees swarming along the ground over a network of little tunnels. We believe these are Ivy bees. (Colletes hederae).
Acording to the Sussex Wildlife Trust “at the beginning of September, male Ivy bees emerge about two weeks before females, when scores of males can be seen flying low over the ground with an audible hum, much like honeybees around a hive. They are waiting for the first females to emerge. When one does, all the male bees try to mate with her, and this is when you might see a mating ball.
Male bees don’t have a sting and are completely harmless. The females have a sting but have rarely been known to use it on people. You’d need to be behaving in a seriously annoying way to provoke one.“
Ivy bees are only out for a few weeks at this time of year so enjoy them while you can.
The Patch is a real haven for wildlife. Bats, badgers, squirrels and far from shy foxes are all welcome residents.
On weekday afternoons the loudest noise you will hear is the happy sound of children from our three local primary schools laughing and playing together.
But at other times, close your eyes for a moment and listen to the free concert provided by the Patch’s birds! This spring, neighbours have seen and heard robins, dunnocks, sparrows, long tailed tits, blackbirds, wood pigeons, blue tits, great tits, wrens and others. (As well as seagulls of course!)
There are simple free apps like Merlin and Warblr you can use to identify different birdsongs.
The British Trust for Ornithology is running a project to find out just how important greenspaces are for UK birds and provide guidance on effective greenspace management for birds and people. They want you to tell them which greenspace(s) you visited, how long you spent there, and which birds and how many of them you observed. See how to take part and sign up here. https://www.bto.org/get-involved/volunteer/projects/greenspaces/taking-part
Some eagle eyed people have been concerned about the Patch pond drying out in this sunny weather. Our Wildlife expert and Co-Chair Rich Howarth says “While tap water is detrimental to the water quality (rather than toxic), if there is an ’emergency’ for tadpoles, then it could be a stop gap. However, the plan is this summer to totally dry out if possible, and to replace the liner.”
If you are interested in getting involved with this task and generally tidying up the pond, please do sign up as a volunteer and we will let you know when we have a date. Volunteering Form – The Friends of William Clarke Park
The committee often gets asked over the NO DOGS POLICY in The Patch. For transparency, we will reveal the real reason why there is a NO DOGS POLICY in The Patch, check our Instagram feed to see to whom really runs the committee.
Thank you to all the volunteers that gave up their Sunday morning to help with the Green Spring Clean in the Patch! What a difference we made together and weren’t we lucky the sun was shining. With the help of twenty volunteers we were able to prune the brambles back, clear the pond area, repair some of the fence round the chalk bank, attend to the planters and cut back a tree near the container. We then all enjoyed socialising and meeting new neighbours while having a well-earned cup of tea, mug of soup and a delicious slice of cake. Thank you to the cake bakers and soup maker, it was much appreciated.
The popular Spring in The Patch community festival held in William Clarke Park (better known as The Patch) will be taking a “fallow spring” in 2026 with no event being held this April. Yet still potentially an event in the Autumn.
The Friends of William Clarke Park committee reluctantly took the decision not to go ahead this spring so that we can focus on raising funds, getting more volunteers actively involved and strengthening our structures.
It gets more expensive every year to safely organise events with rising insurance costs and essential equipment needing to be renewed or replaced.
Donations via our donations page are always welcome but even more important are volunteers willing to help organise events. We particularly need people with event management and fundraising skills but also people to help set up and steward events in the Patch. Here is the form to express interest.
We’ll still be active this year! Our annual Patch Spring Green Clean day will take place in March 22nd 10:30 ’til 1pm
We’ll be planning smaller community events to bring people together and raise funds for park improvements. We’re also hoping to hold our regular community get-together in September.
The Friends of William Clarke Park group is going through the process of registering as a charity so we can fundraise more effectively and continue working to keep The Patch a beautiful, welcoming space for people and wildlife alike.
If you would like to help out or to become a member of Friends of William Clarke (membership is free), please get in touch on info@williamclarkepark.org or via this form.
“Patch Park” – written by Pat Lynott, a Patch Local!
the kemptown line came this way, across the Lewes road high on a viaduct, across the Hartington and rolling away into the Elm grove tunnel
both viaduct and line are long since gone, except for the tracks bed, now known as the Patch park, a long flow of leafy green nestling snugly between the gardens back gates, stretching gracefully from playground to frog pond down at the tunnels end.
