Community minded submariners get stuck into Haverhill pre-school's groundwork

It’s not every day that a group of 15 submariners roll up at a pre-school in Haverhill to help do some groundwork for a new outdoor play area, but that’s what happened last week.

The Royal Navy personnel are all crew members the HMS Vengeance, one of the four submarines that form part of the UK’s nuclear deterrent.

They spent three hours last Friday at Stepping Stones Childcare & Education CIC in Chalkstone Way, where they cleared an area of woodland within the grounds of the adjacent Coupals Primary Academy ready for it to be turned into an outdoor play area used for Forest School activities.

The crew from the Trident submarine, which is based out of HM Naval Base Clyde, Scotland, has a long standing connection to St Edmundsbury and last year it received the Freedom of the Borough of St Edmundsbury.

They ended up at Stepping Stones after its lead practitioner, Elaine McManus, struck up a conversation with their commanding officer, Commander Darren Mason, during the ceremony that saw Cllr Margaret Marks sworn in as the new Mayor of St Edmundsbury a few weeks ago.

Elaine said: “I spoke to him and said ‘what are the chances of them coming to Haverhill’ and he said ‘yes, we can do that', so that’s how it went.

“I think this is the first time they’ve been in Haverhill. It’s absolutely wonderful. Everyone has been working together so well.”

The tools used by the submariners were provided by East Town Park ranger, Ben Pumfrey, who is designing the outdoor area and will soon be setting it up ready for use.