WAYLAND VAN

HILDYCK-SMITH, of Forde

Park, Newton Abbot, writes:

With more and more of our

prime countryside being gobbled

up by the greedy entrepreneurs

soon there will be

no ‘green lung’ for our cities

and towns, so we must really

treasure what we have, our

PARKS.

We are fortunate in Newton

Abbot having several of these

enjoyable spaces and will no

doubt have to fight to keep

them as they are.

Forde Park, where I live, is

an eight-acre park developed

in the late 1800s. It became

the property of the town as

public pleasure gardens in

1930 and shortly after this a

pavilion was built which

served the tennis courts as

changing rooms etc in the

days when the courts were

manned and a small charge

made for their use.

This was extremely popular

and still is, despite the fact

that the pavilion passed into

the police hands as a training

and sports area, using the

space as a store room for

sports equipment, and members

of the public were

excluded, not that it stopped

the popularity of the tennis

courts.

The police permitted such

as the local Neighbourhood

Watch and other local committees

and clubs to hire the

room but there were no facilities

and the windows permanently

shuttered so that it was

not successful.

The park is, of course, in a

conservation area with its

beautiful Luscombe oaks,

seats and memorial trees to

those who loved it in their

lifetime.

This is, I would imagine,

why it has not degenerated

into the usual type of fairground

park with swings and

slides and remains a quiet

place for older people still to

enjoy the environment and sit

under the trees and read, or

even venture to join the

newly-formed croquet club.

Residents living on the

park are fortunate and we

should all congratulate the

council parks department

for keeping it in such excellent

condition. Let us hope

no-one ever tries to ‘develop’

it, one must fight tooth and

nail to keep what we have as

it gets less and less every

week.