DaveReading
Don't suffer fools gladly (must try harder!)
- Location
- Reading, obvs
I used to have a wild life - it's virtually disappeared, too.
Its no wonder my wild life has virtually disappeard (photos).
- Thread starter Dave7
- Start date
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presta
Legendary Member
The estate where I am used to be surrounded by open dairy farmland when we came here in 1960, then in the late 60s/early 70s it was developed into an estate that was 6-8 times the size of the original, leaving just a small strip of farmland along the flood plain down by the river. When I was at school we used to go for cross country runs down there. Thirty years later it was expanded again.
I have a couple of aerial photos of here from 10.5.46, and 25.6.49, one without my house on it, and the other with it. This and the other half of my semi were the last at the end of the street then. I recall 50-odd years ago, the guy who lived in the bungalow opposite mine saying that when he first arrived, his place was all on its own in open fields at the end of a track, "You could see the mill down by the river" he said, "That's why the house is called Millview".
My old school playing field's now parkland, but it's slap bang in the middle of the town centre, so I don't know how long they'll be able to resist the temptation to flog that off to developers. It'll doubtless be worth a fortune.
A popular pastime round here is buying up houses then building another one in the garden, there are seven of them in this street alone, and another two on the site of some old lock up garages, all within 240 yards. The first was built by my neighbours on the allotment he'd used for chickens. I had no idea that one little bungalow had such a large back garden until someone demolished the garage, drove an access road through, and built another three bungalows behind.
After the farm closed, the farmer built a huge detached retirement bungalow on the kitchen garden, then they built a care home on the site of the original farmhouse/barns/farmyard. Wind the clock on another 10-15 years, and someone demolished that nearly new bungalow and put up an estate of 15-20 houses on the plot. Strangely, the site of the milk bottling plant next door is still derelict.
I have a couple of aerial photos of here from 10.5.46, and 25.6.49, one without my house on it, and the other with it. This and the other half of my semi were the last at the end of the street then. I recall 50-odd years ago, the guy who lived in the bungalow opposite mine saying that when he first arrived, his place was all on its own in open fields at the end of a track, "You could see the mill down by the river" he said, "That's why the house is called Millview".
My old school playing field's now parkland, but it's slap bang in the middle of the town centre, so I don't know how long they'll be able to resist the temptation to flog that off to developers. It'll doubtless be worth a fortune.
A popular pastime round here is buying up houses then building another one in the garden, there are seven of them in this street alone, and another two on the site of some old lock up garages, all within 240 yards. The first was built by my neighbours on the allotment he'd used for chickens. I had no idea that one little bungalow had such a large back garden until someone demolished the garage, drove an access road through, and built another three bungalows behind.
After the farm closed, the farmer built a huge detached retirement bungalow on the kitchen garden, then they built a care home on the site of the original farmhouse/barns/farmyard. Wind the clock on another 10-15 years, and someone demolished that nearly new bungalow and put up an estate of 15-20 houses on the plot. Strangely, the site of the milk bottling plant next door is still derelict.
ebikeerwidnes
Guru
- Location
- Widnes
Where my first house was it was on a small estate
There was a piece of scrubland at the bottom of the close that contained several trees
SOmeone managed to get those trees protected
Then the builder put forward for planning permission fro some flat to be built on that land
and it turned out that the builders "accidentally" felled a few of them that were in the way of their trucks and lorries
they got a fine and had to plant new ones - but only The Gods know where they planted them as they were not near where the old ones were!!!
