by Alan Twigg, Ethelburt Avenue
No doubt other long term residents like myself were surprised by the inaccurate and misleading letter published under this heading in the January Newsletter.
For the sake of accuracy I will restrict my comments to the lower green/square about which I have personal knowledge.
I can appreciate your contributor may be unaware of any broken branches but I should have thought that a short walk and a few minutes inspection would have revealed the missing bark on the trunk of the smallest tree in the clump by the main avenue ( the tree did not shed its bark) and the grass and earth scuffed away under the silver birch and under the pine tree in the opposite corner.
How or why Mrs Wydenbach makes an erroneous assumption as to Herbert Collins ideals, I do not know. The green was for ornament only, and the playing of games was not allowed. Until at least the late 196O’s there was an oblong timber board on wooden posts notifying everyone of that fact. In that bygone era we children were not allowed to play on the green and if any of us did go there we were (rightly) told to get off. So, where did we play on those lovely summer days? Believe it or not we had back gardens.
Newer residents may be interested to learn that in those good old days not only was the main green cut with more regularity than these days but the lawns in front of the houses around the square were also done and when necessary weeding was carried out.
One memory of childhood was learning to ride a bike and subsequently practising by riding around the square on the road.
One resident complained to my mother that my going by her window made her dizzy. I often wonder how that retired school mistress would have coped nowadays.