About us.

Oldway Gardens Volunteer Group.

Oldway Gardens Volunteer Group - Our History & Our Work.

Oldway Gardens Volunteer Group was formed in September 2019 after the Council ended their maintenance contract for the gardens due to lack of funds.

Since then the group has gone from strength to strength and is growing rapidly with many more members of the community joining our group. The simple fact remains that people from Torbay and beyond love Oldway.

• The gardens are now flourishing under the management of Tim Eley as President and Pete Welsby as Chair, with sustainable planting leading the way.

• The benches within the gardens have been refurbished, and are cleaned weekly by our volunteers.

• The grass areas on our 17 acre site are cut by push mowers by our volunteers, with the edging done by hand sheers.

• The original tea hut opened in the summer of 2021 and has now been replaced with a new hut with electrical supply and a defibrillator attached with monies raised by the group. This has been a favourite watering hole manned by our volunteers.

• Our pond has been drained, cleared, repaired, refilled and a new island created to encourage more wildlife.

• The overgrown rockery has been cleared of overgrown shrubs and replanted with hundreds of sustainable plants.

• The flower beds on the main driveway have been reopened and now provide a splendid welcome to visitors.

• Our plant stall is currently open 3 days a week, again manned by volunteers, providing an income to enable the group to purchase equipment and plants for the gardens.

• Heritage and Garden Tours take place and provide a wealth of information about the history of the Singer Family.

• Dog training sessions are held at Oldway.

Our Facebook page Oldway Gardeners Volunteer Group is very active (click the “f” sign to be redirected to it) and currently has in excess of 1600 subscribers from around the country and further afield. So many encouraging words and offers of support. Generous donations of cash, equipment, plants, rocks, the list is endless.

Since its inception we can account for in excess of 40,300 volunteer hours, however in reality the actual figure will be higher. On average we have 50 volunteers a week giving their time.

The volunteers come from all walks of life, and all ages and they all have one thing in common…. they desire to save Oldway, its Gardens and as well as generally having love for the wonderful building and gardens.

Visitors to the gardens are happy to share their precious memories of what Oldway means to them. All the volunteers will tell you how they can spend time chatting to visitors and also how grateful the community is for the work we are all doing.

We are just a bunch of ordinary folk who have a passion for Oldway and are prepared to give our time and effort to save it for future generations. Walk around the gardens and you will feel something very special, peaceful and warm. People call it their special place.

The interaction between the volunteers is fantastic, we all get along very well and bounce ideas off one another. We encourage each person to find a project or job which they enjoy, a job that fits their “niche”. We want them to be happy in their “work” and therefore they keep coming back.

We have young, old, middle aged, people with disabilities, bad backs, problem knees, just about every ailment you can think of. But they all want to be part of our Group. Working solo, or as part of a group, we do whatever we can to accommodate needs.

We have frequent weekly visits from the Community Payback Team, they work very hard at Oldway.

We have involved the local primary school in a pollinating project and assist them in their own garden space.

Various local colleges send students to assist in the gardens and undertake projects around the grounds.

In November 2021 we became a registered charity number 1196635

This is Community volunteering at its best!