FRYENT Country Park in Kingsbury has been an area of natural beauty since the 16th century, and in recent years, one local group have been responsible for keeping it that way.

Barn Hill Conservation Group is a registered charity run by volunteers, who have proved so devoted to the parks in Fryent, Barn Hill and Roe Green that Brent Parks Service have grown to rely on their hard work and expertise.

Chairwoman and founder member Kathy Northcroft said: "We've been out every weekend for the last twenty years, rain snow or shine. I can only remember one week that we ended up cancelling, when it was blowing a very stormy gale. Even then, we tried to go out but found we just couldn't stand up."

Two other original members, Monica Green and Brenda Hatcher, remain from the group's formation in 1984. Now there are more than a dozen members who meet regularly on Sundays to work on tree planting, trimming and path clearing, with some of them doing additional tasks on weekdays. Kathy said that they were all motivated by a love of the nature on their doorstep.

"Many people drive down Fryent Way and never look to see what's on either side. But we all love the country park, which was why we started the group twenty years ago. We do a lot of the ordinary weekly maintenance, for example on the paths and hedgerows, and have our own tree nursery in Roe Green, which is a pet project."

With over 100 hectares of meadows, woods, hedges and ponds, Fryent Country Park is drawn in detail in an All Soul's College map in 1597. This ancient heritage has inspired the group to plant and maintain the hedgerows in their original layout, and has also brought original names for the fields, like Honey Sloughe, Dormers Meade and Black Landes, back into common use.

The group, who are affiliated to the British Trust for Conservation Volunteers, also aim to conserve wildlife and the park is a particularly rich habitat for birds and butterflies.

Kathy added: "We always take the wildlife into account in our work, and at the moment we have to be especially careful not to disturb the birds in breeding season. We also do a survey of the butterflies in the summer and monitor the numbers of frogspawn in the ponds."

According to a leaflet produced by the group, Fryent Country Park is home to 25 mammal species, 21 species of butterfly, 243 types of wild flower and 80 species of bird. The field vole, pipistrelle bat, red admiral butterfly, grey heron and tawny owl are some of the more unusual sights amongst the animal kingdom, while the plant life includes bluebells, great burnet, lesser celendine, meadow buttercup and red campion.

Scheduled tasks for the next two months include hedgelaying, tree planting, controlling Japanese knotweed, pruning overhanging vegetation and frogspawn and bluebell surveys. Volunteers are very welcome at their regular sessions in the park on Sundays between 10am and 12.30pm. Meeting places vary but are regularly printed on the What's On page of the Harrow Times. All tools are provided and free tea and coffee is supplied.

For more information on the Barn Hill Conservation Group, call 020 8206 0492, or if turning up on the day, call their mobile on 07944 663978. For background information, visit www.bhcg.ik.com. Other groups who are active in the country park are the Kingsbury walkers (020 8907 2836) who go on nature walks on Wednesday afternoons, and Friends of Fryent (020 8386 2502) who organise children's nature activities.