Finding a new home isn’t just about the right number of bedrooms, bathrooms, or whether there’s a garage. We all want somewhere that just feels right: warm, comfortable, a place where a family can grow.
And if you’ve got children, or are planning for the future, it’s got to be a place where they can be both safe and free to play in an environment that creates wonderful memories as they grow.
That’s where Chris Gregory comes in, the award-winning CEO of Isle of Play, a local charity dedicated to fulfilling the ‘Right to Play’ for children across the Isle of Man.
Here at Hartford Homes, we’re proud to have supported the charity’s PlayingOut travelling playscheme for several years.
We continue to be inspired by Chris and the team’s dedication to our Island’s young people and community. That’s why we brought Isle of Play on board to help plan and design new natural play areas at Ballagarraghyn, giving kids the chance to let their imaginations soar in the great outdoors just minutes from their doorstep.
We caught up with Chris to talk all things play, and why Jurby holds such a special place in the heart of the people who live there.
Tell us about your work with Hartford Homes, and the Jurby project in particular.
We are actually up in Jurby every week throughout the school holidays and have a really good relationship with the community up there. In fact, there is an unbelievable sense of community in the village.
For children and their families, there is no better place on the Island to grow up. For example, it is a place that isn’t plagued by traffic, so it doesn’t have some of the perceived dangers that other areas of the Island might have.
There’s also a lot of open space for children to play in, and Ballagarraghyn, in particular, offers a more enriched environment than perhaps any other area.
With the addition of the new play areas created by Hartford Homes, children have the ability to navigate their way around the new estate — playfully — so I think that’s a real benefit and will add to the already fantastic sense of community.
When it comes to your consultancy work with companies like Hartford Homes, could you share what that entails and the types of advice you provide?
The place where children typically want to be able to play is on their own doorstep.
What we’ve done with Hartford Homes is look at how we can use these quiet residential streets and actually make them places where children feel they can play.
The easy way of doing that is by giving children and their parents permission to let their children play outside.
That’s something that has been key in Hartford’s strategy for all of their recent developments: safe environments for children to play in.
We’ve also consulted with them on developing play equipment, which isn’t necessarily just your standard set of swings and a slide. Their play areas incorporate boulders, rocks and other natural features, something that we call a ‘play affordance’.
The classic one within the street environment is the simple kerb. A kerb offers a brilliant affordance for play. Kids will maybe start having a game of Kerby!
We also look around for other bits and pieces within the estates that can add value to children’s play. For example, a random boulder scattered onto an estate might seem irrelevant or strange to an adult. But to a child it has value for its play potential. Maybe to run around, to climb over, to stand on, whatever it is that fires their imagination.
Usually, half of the overall development will incorporate these little areas to provide another benefit to children’s play.
We also offer PlayingOut sessions throughout the school holidays. In Jurby, for example, we use the Jurby School playing field. Actually, some of the new green areas within the estates may offer a better venue for us to do these. What a great opportunity for local children to pop out of their houses and play!
For Hartford Homes projects outside Jurby, we have worked with them on traffic calming measures to help give parents the confidence to their children to go outside and play.
In summary, I am of the firm belief that children are pollinators of communities.
They can help build healthier, happier communities where neighbours start to know each other again, which is something that we seem to have lost in recent years.
Click here to watch another interview with Chris about PlayingOut and Isle of Play’s amazing work.