Spring was definitely in the air at Meldreth Station as volunteers gathered for their first gardening session of the year.

It was the biggest group of volunteers ever seen at the station, as Meldreth Veg Club paid a visit to clear up the garden at the back of the station building.

One of the Meldreth Veg Club members is a resident in new flats which have been built next to the station. Like others without private gardens, the communal station garden offers a chance for anyone to enjoy being outside and getting stuck in with gardening – and to make new friends in the wider community at the same time.

Station gardening within the Meldreth, Shepreth, and Foxton Community Rail Partnership (CRP) has been going strong for nearly ten years, thanks to village volunteers as well as a regular stream of Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award students from Melbourn Village College and further afield.

Sarah Grove, project officer for the CRP, said: “Gardens promote well-kept station environments and platform tubs offer a cheery send-off or welcome home to work and school commuters. We’ve been rewarded at both Meldreth and Shepreth Stations with minimal parking charges or free parking in return for the year-round tending of station gardens.

“We really hope to encourage anyone who’d like to get involved in station gardening to get in touch with us at railusergroup@gmail.com. Equally, we encourage anyone with a journey to make to Cambridge, Royston, Ely, Stevenage, London or anywhere else on the King’s Cross line to do so by train! We are working toward a return of half-hourly all-day services, hopefully in May, but need to see ridership figures go up. Please give the train a try!”