As the nights draw in …

Heart of Newhaven’s October newsletter

All about project updates …

Our friendship benches are now being decorated!

On October 8th, a group of older and younger people  from the New Spin intergenerational project at the Citadel will decorate the first of our six friendship benches, all of which have been made by Mens Shed.

The New Spin group will be working with local artist Johnathan Elders to create patterns for the backs of the bench. Further benches will be decorated in further sessions, so each will be unique. The project is being run with the help of Thrive, to celebrate World Mental Health Day on 10th October.

Fruit tree planting in Victoria Park

Our Greening Team have been busy with plans for the area and pupils from Trinity High and Trinity Primary Schools will be helping to plant some young fruit trees in Victoria Park this winter to enhance the area, by adding beauty, interest and biodiversity.

There are already a couple of small trees in situ, so those will be added to, to create a mini orchard. The trees will be Scottish heritage fruit trees, specially chosen for the site, and will include apple, pear and plum. 

Each one will have its own protective cage, provided by Edinburgh City Council, and the pupils will learn from a Royal Botanic Gardens representative how best to plant and care for them.

We hope to work on more tree-planting and wilding projects in the future, not just in the parks but in the more built-up parts of our neighbourhood, where urban nature needs some encouragement. 

 Keep abreast of the latest news on our Greening Page

Environment Page

And more on green issues

The Heart of Newhaven Community was assessed by It’s Your Neighbourhood, part of the Keep Scotland Beautiful charity recently, and despite it only being the first year of our association with them, we have scored a Level 3, (out of five) which means we are “advancing”.

The score was helped by having achieved our goal of funding from the Scottish Land Fund to acquire the site, as well as successfully engaging with a variety of local communities and groups. Well done everyone involved. The next level is “thriving” and the top level is “outstanding”. How long will it be?

Forth Reflections

On October 22nd from 2pm – 4 pm we are collaborating with an exhibition in the main entrance to Ocean Terminal called ‘Forth Reflections and Expressions of Wellbeing’. The event is being organised in conjunction with the Edinburgh Wellbeing PACT and the Forth/Edinburgh Shoreline Project.

Conceived during the dark days of winter lockdown this project is the passionate responses of well over a hundred different people to a part of the Forth coast that is special to them.

A long storyline of enmeshed crafted memories and visions of the Forth has emerged, linking the Fife, Edinburgh and East Lothian coasts, biodiversity, people and communities.

Each participant expressed their response to their chosen 1km of coast on a calico square and many people have focused on the coast’s local history and wildlife, its beauty and diversity and the many species and memories that have been and are still being lost. While frustration and anger can be seen in many pieces about marine and intertidal pollution, there is also heartfelt hope for the future.

We hope that as many people as possible will call in and have a chat. Not only will it be an opportunity to talk to us about our plans for the Heart in general but we also want to have conversations about wellbeing and what it means to each of us in our community. As inspiration we will be displaying a selection of the calico squares created by local people.

Call in to see the display and have a chat.

Keep watching our website and social media platforms for the latest news, as we await the move of Victoria Primary School pupils to their new home and the handover of the keys for the site from Edinburgh City Council to the Heart.