The Association would like to assemble a collection of photographic images showing the estate in days gone by. This newsletter has occasionally contained a photo of early Ethelburt Avenue and Bassett Green Road before the council estate was build. But we do not know what Leaside Way looked like before it was made up, or Field Close before the bungalows were built. In his book Sights and Scenes of SWAYTHLING, Mr Brian Ticehurst has assembled an excellent collection of photos. But there is nothing on the Collins Estate. He gives us one tantalising glimpse through the railway arch towards Bassett Green Road, but there is nothing to tell us what lies beyond. When W.J.Collins, Herbert’s father, purchased the land from John Willis Fleming of Chilworth Manor in 1925, it was just a field on the north side of Bassett Green Road and allotment gardens on the south side.
Did no one capture this rustic scene with their Brownie box camera?
Do you have any photos showing local views or recall any event on the estate that was recorded by a photo in a local newspaper?