Hello and welcome to the Brentwood.
Buzz a podcast. Celebrating all that's good
about the people and places of Brentwood, Essex.
I'm Kay Bellwood, King Georges playing fields in Brentwood
snuggled between Hartswood Rd., Engrave Rd., the railway line
and Hartswood are the towns much loved venue for everything from
water play, skateboarding, golf, football and rugby to crazy
golf, dog walking, children's play, tag active and a lovely
cafe for a coffee with a view in the last five years.
King George. 'S has got.
A new pavilion, splash park and adventure play zone run by
everyone active on behalf of Brentwood Borough Council.
Keely Heisman is the general manager for everyone active at
King George's Playing Fields, and she's been telling the
Brentwood Buzz how she came to be in the town.
I've lived in Brentwood for most of my life actually was about 8
years old and with my family, I've got a lot of family in
Brentwood. I moved to Chelmsford when I had
my children, but I've come back to Brentwood and I'm now working
here at King George's. I did start at the Brentwood
Centre, but now, yeah, now I'm over at King George's working
for. Everyone active, so presumably
if you were eight when you. Arrived in Brentwood.
You'll have childhood memories of the.
Park. Absolutely.
I used to come here when they had the paddling pools.
Remember the paddling pools and the the little cafe with the ice
creams? Yeah, I used to come over here
quite a lot with a child. Is it nice to come back now?
It is and it's so different. I was talking to some customers
the other day that had been coming for 50 years and they,
you know, we was discussing our memories and.
Because it's it, I mean, it is the King George's playing
fields. It's technically not a park, but
it is the King George's playing fields.
And I think probably the biggest change has been in the last sort
of 678 years with the the building of the pavilion so.
It was March 2022, so it'd be five years.
Next year you would be having a celebration.
But yes, with the pavilion, we like to sort of see as a
community hub. We have lots of community groups
here, regular customers. Obviously we've got the splash
park over there and adventure play.
Inside. We've got the soft play and
ninja tag, a sensory room. It's very inclusive and
accessible for everyone. You you work for everyone
active. They they run, they have the
contract essentially for to run this on behalf of Brentwood
Borough Council. Yes, we've got.
A good relationship with Brentwood Borough Council, yeah.
And we've got the contract for the next 15 years, so.
Oh, OK. Excellent.
We are very fortunate in having the the King George's playing
fields because it is, although we've got the the big pavilion
which is a a hub, it's the sort of place where now the
Strawberry Fair is held in the fields as well.
Is that something you get involved?
In yes, we get really heavily involved in the Strawberry Fair.
We've got that on the 14th of June this year.
So we've got a stall and we're going to, it's going to be kind
of a sports theme. So we're going to have lots of
sports coming on just over the other side of the park, up by
the splash pad, yeah. And and what who's your
clientele? Because at the moment it's
school time so there's not so many kind of teenage children
in, but there's quite a few mums and toddlers in at the moment.
Is that your usual clientele or does it change as the day goes
on? It depends what we've got going
on. I mean, obviously there's lots
to do for family here. You could literally come here
for the whole day and there's so much to do.
But we also have our regular customers that have been coming
for a long time and they yesterday actually, we've got a
really lovely story from yesterday.
We've got regular friends. They actually met here and one
of them plays the piano for the Alzheimer's Society on a regular
basis. So we bought him a keyboard here
so that he can play for us when he comes.
Sadly he's recently had a stroke, but we welcomed him back
for the first time yesterday and he played the keyboard for the
first time and he was able to do it.
It was very emotional. It wasn't, it was all crying.
It was just so lovely and it was so appreciative.
But they speak so highly of us. They're like part of the family.
So and like I say, we have community groups, so we have
home schooling groups come in. We've got you Create yourself
Calm Bright Futures. We're also in touch with
Hopefield Animal Sanctuary at the moment.
We're going to volunteer there for them during volunteers week
in June and we're gonna have a donation station set up here for
them. So that's really nice.
We've got a nice relationship with them.
We have networking events here, so we've got one on Friday
actually, and I think there's another one in a few weeks on a
Monday. So that helps us to sort of make
connections with different people and invite them along.
And yeah, we sort of build connections like that with whole
quiz nights, fundraising quiz nights.
We've done that for breast cancer and the bank and seller
Trust. We've we've done it for the
spread of Smile charity. So we do a lot of fundraising
and a lot of work with charities.
We did Pajama Rama for children with council.
We've had Lennox Cancer Trust charity in as well for an
afternoon tea. So yeah, we are in touch with
lots of local different charities and community groups.
Yeah. Now you've lived here for or
been in the area since you were 8.
Does that mean you kind of like come across, you know, people
that you know, perhaps when you're working the part people
are coming in, you go, I know you.
I remember you from however long back.
Yes, I do. Yeah.
Blasts from the past. So yeah, quite often if I'm on
reception, I'll see people that I've went to school with.
Obviously, I'm still friendly with a lot of people that I went
to school with. I went to Brentwood County High
School, actually my partner now I met when I was 17 in
Brentwood. We didn't see each other for 30
years. And it's that's a nice little
Brentwood love story that we're that we met up again after all
these years. So yeah.
How are you with dog Walker? Speaking as somebody with a dog,
can you? Can you bring your dog here?
Unfortunately you can't bring your dog into the pavilion, but
we have the kiosk up a splash which we we have open as much as
we possibly can for the dog walkers.
We are in talks with the council at the moment about perhaps some
benches, but we we would like to be able to invite people with
dogs a lot more to the Fillion, yeah.
Because we're quite a bit community in the, in the in the
playing fields, we all get to know each other and and and find
friends. It's quite fun.
It'd be nice to come for a coffee afterwards.
Yeah, you come quite often, don't you, with your dog?
Yeah, Yeah, that was a nice story because you said you've
got an allotment over the over the other side.
Yeah. And, and I think you you have a
a relationship with somebody at the allotment as well for the
with the cafe. We do, yes.
Yes, she comes in some for some coffee beans because apparently
it helps your crops grow. Yes.
Yeah, coffee grounds. Yes, it's it stops the slugs and
and it, it, it fertilizes the soil.
It's brilliant. Yeah.
Yes, you're one of our regular customers.
So what's your training to be able to do a job like this, Run
a pavilion, deal with the kind of like the splash park and the
the the adventure play? What sort of training do you
have to be able to do that? Well actually I've always worked
with children, so I've got the qualifications to work with
children but with everyone active.
When I first started I was at the Brentwood centre on customer
service. Their training programme for
staff is for colleagues. That is wonderful.
I then trained up to be a sales manager and from a sales manager
I was in a contract customer service manager.
I then took on the events and social media and I've also do
the finance and admin. So just learning the different
areas of the business and the training that comes with that.
I'm also at the moment on the emerging general managers
course, so that's obviously helping me.
My sister was actually the general manager of King George's
and she's just moved to Clements Hall.
So because I was on the emerging GMI was on secondment and
luckily I've been able to keep this position and and I love it.
You know, everyone active really does support its colleagues and
progressives people where to where they want to be.
So if you're doing social media and finance and admin, is there
anybody else needed or are you just a a one woman machine?
Absolutely. I definitely couldn't do it
without the team. They are.
They are a godsend. We're just sharing out those
responsibilities now. I've taken on general manager.
Then obviously there's room for other people to progress into
those different areas. And do you have a kind of a plan
for the future? How can you develop things
further? We are looking at different
things all the time. At the moment.
We've got a different kind of plan that we're looking at for
Ninja Tag and we've got lots of different activities happening.
We're always putting on different events.
I've just been in touch for a lady who's going to do cheese
and wine evenings. We've got sip and paint
evenings. So like I'm saying, although
it's a family and lots of things to do for the children, we're
trying to progress the the activities that we've got for
adults of an evening. We've got a great relationship
with the Golf Club, Hartswood Golf Club.
So we're kind of in partnership with them to try and get some
more ladies into golf and children into golf.
So all the time are in meetings trying to think of what what
else we can do to bring the community together.
Yeah. And what, what about elsewhere
in the the park? Are you just the pavilion, the
adventure play and the splash park?
Or do you have things to say about what else happens in the
park as well? You know, I mean, could we get
adult gym equipment or something like that?
For example, that would be a decision for the council.
Ultimately, that's a fantastic idea.
We've always talking to them about different things we can
do, you know, is there something different we could do a Venture
Park because it's not used as often as we'd like it to be
because of the age of the children then being at school.
Obviously we've got the fun days happening in the summer.
We want to bring some more activities for things outside in
the summer. We've got the Strawberry Fair,
but there's also another talk with the council about a fun day
where we'll have different activities to what we usually
do. So yeah, there's lots of
conversations and things happening.
And it is a lovely place to come.
I mean, today it's bright blue sky, the blossom is out and
we're overlooking the the Bowling Club, which is, I mean,
is Immaculate as always. And it just feels like a very
community orientated space to be.
Definitely. It's beautiful.
Like you said, we're sitting outside today looking at these
lovely views. We're actually holding a wedding
here in May and they came and looked and just just couldn't
believe how beautiful it was. A lot of people don't realise
it's here and that's hopefully what this kind of thing helps to
improve because it's it's hidden, it's in beautiful
grounds. But when you actually come and
like you say, you've been coming for a long time and you can
appreciate her, how lovely it is.
And it's, and you're, you're doing weddings now we're not
doing weddings, but you can, you can book it for that kind of
event. So weddings and parties.
Yes, we had an anniversary party not that long ago where they was
doing line dancing in our Jubilee suite and the staff was
encouraged to join in. So we had a lovely evening with
those. It was really nice.
We have here parties, baby showers, christenings, all all
sorts of different things. What will make you stay here,
Stay in the job, stay at King George's?
The colleagues and the customers and I just love the fact that
we've got our regular customers. We're like a family, We really
are. It's just seeing the same faces,
watching the children grow, doing the different activities
that we're doing. I just, I love my job, I really
do. Thanks to Keely and the team at
King George's Playing Fields for being so welcoming.
The Brent Abbas has been back to meet one of the community groups
using the pavilion. Create yourself calm and you'll
be able to hear that episode with them soon.
For now, please like, share, tell your friends and pop to
King George's for a walk and some play.