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News & Events

Oare Gunpowder Works Receives Green Flag Award

On 17th July, Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park was recognised as a leader in heritage, conservation, and community involvement by the Civic Trust’s Green Flag Award Scheme. This distinction also allowed for the country park’s nomination as a Green Heritage Site by English Heritage. The Green Flag Award sets the national standard for country parks and green spaces while the Green Heritage Site Accreditation recognises a proficiency in the understanding, care and promotion of country parks and green spaces with heritage interest. As of 2007 there are only 31 Green Heritage Sites in the country.

After a series of extensive renovations the park was opened to the public in 2005, offering free access to marked trails that follow woodland, glades, wetlands, millponds and the structural remains of buildings associated with the manufacture of gunpowder. Since the original closure of the works in 1934, the woodland has gained a unique character through its gradual evolution from a screen used to absorb blasts and reduce noise to a valuable wildlife habitat that currently provides an environment for a wide range of native plants, birds and animals. Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park is maintained by Swale Borough Council in partnership with Groundwork Kent & Medway. Local volunteers help maintain walking trails and park habitat through a work and training program organised by Groundwork while additional volunteers staff the visitor center and provide guided tours of the site when requested. 

The Green Flag Award Scheme states that country parks should be an openly accessible oasis of calm and natural beauty that provide vital social benefits associated with relaxation, exercise and play. According to Councillor Gerry Lewin, the recent success of Oare Gunpowder Works Country Park ‘is evidence of the renaissance of our parks and green spaces and also of what can be achieved when organisations work together. Green Flag Award winners are judged to be welcoming, safe and well maintained and involve the local community. If anyone in Swale hasn’t visited yet, I urge them to do so.’      

Groundwork was commissioned by Swale Borough Council to develop proposals for restoring Oare Gunpowder Works as a Country Park, undertook detailed designs, raised £1,000,000 (mostly from the Heritage Lottery Fund) and managed the project through to completion.

Groundwork Kent & Medway
48 Canterbury Street
Gillingham
Kent ME7 5UN