East Coseley Big Local set out to bring families together, to improve green spaces and to get local people meeting and talking to each other. Coseley Bowling Club is a great example of just this.
One of the first projects to be supported by East Coseley Big Local was a large net to keep bowlers safe from cricket balls from the neighbouring cricket pitch. Last year the club was supported to create a Buzz Garden to attract butterflies and bees and improve the overgrown green space for the benefit of the people who visit and bowl at the club.
Joe has been Chair of the bowling club for 3 years. When asked of the impact of Big Local support, he said “You can see that it’s made an impact by just looking around the bowling green. We’ve had support from Big Local for timber partitions to tidy up the green and prevent the old one from rotting. Last year we had the new shed as a facility for visitors to watch the bowling. Big Local has bought tins of paint to do the place up and make it nice for the community. All the hard work that volunteer Joe has put into maintaining the Buzz Garden – we wouldn’t have had anything as good as this without our volunteers and the support of East Coseley Big Local.
People come from all over to use the bowling green – Edgbaston, Dudley, Dartmouth – it covers a big area. I’d like to think the green shows Coseley in a good light.
We just want to keep on making it better. We’ve put a lot of time into the green. The money needed to maintain the green is generated ourselves.
Volunteer, Joe, has been involved in the Buzz Garden since the start.
Joe said, “It was a wilderness and we wanted to do something with it. I put gravel boards down and raised it all up, we then started to get more ideas. We selected plants that were wildlife friendly. We’ve seen a massive difference to the wildlife on the green. We now feel like we can spread our wings to do more, we’d like to do different beds with different flowers, some people have been talking about edible beds.” When Joe was in his 20’s an old gardener who was in his 70’s said to him “Never let a weed see a Sunday.” This is now Joe’s motto!
Joe has put slabs down and added paths in amongst the flowers. The Buzz Garden does what it’s supposed to do and attracts many butterflies and bees. There are Lavender and Buddleia plants – also known as a butterfly bush – from Joes garden. In amongst the garden plants are little painted stone houses. Julie who paints the stone houses, started by bowling for the ladies team and is now groups secretary.
The bowling green also attracts many birds, including Wagtails, Wrens and Swifts.
Chair Joe said, “We have 50 odd bowlers at the club. We had 5 teams, we’ve now got 8. It’s constantly expanding especially the ladies bowling team. It gets people actively involved, which is the biggest impact to the community. The cricket club is also a really active group, most of our bowlers use the cricket club too so that makes it a thriving place.
It benefits people by getting them out. Families can bring their children to a safe place. New friendships have developed here. It keeps me busy anyway!”
The club is now looking to attract more people to come and have a go at bowling. If people like it, they can join the club. “The age range of people who come here is 17 years old to late 70’s. A lot of bowling clubs have aged and eventually closed. We have a steady influx of middle-aged people here, many 30 year olds took it up for the first time and found they liked it. It’s a very vibrant club that I think is going to carry on for a bit. Bowling is a dying thing in a way, there are fewer greens now, pubs used to have bowling greens, and with the general demise of pubs, the greens have gone. I like to think that we appeal to a wide age group and we bring families together. We have a laugh here.
The Coseley women’s league is in their 4th season. They buy their own uniforms in pink. We all like to look professional and represent the club.”
The bowling club has 2 teams that play at the Coseley Skittles League, “The Skittles League is a great way to connect with the community. This is how we got to know Bayer Street Allotments. We’re getting to know a lot of people involved in Big Local and meeting with others who care about Coseley.”
In the future, they would like to get a toilet on the green.