Before Wyndham Road

Before there was the piece of Wyndham Road between Coach Road and the French and Davies close turns there was the field known as The Mead. A painting of this field can be seen in the community hall and was painted by Katy Ward the daughter of a former rector. Those who remember The Mead will remember that it contained the stream that runs from the Prispen pond and proceeds through the bottom of the 'big rec'. This stream created the conditions of a bog at the bottom of The Mead, an area that was known to the children who often played there as 'the stugs'. It also provided a shortcut from Parsonage Lane to the bottom of the rec for Children heading for the old primary school, then situated at the bottom of Coach Road. 'The stugs' were also a great place for those who wanted to collect frogs spawn but was the sort of place to be avoided by the more fastidious who might wish to avoid sinking into the swamp in wet weather.

'The stugs' are of course, long gone now but their legacy has lingered on in the form of the damp that has sometimes affected houses in the area and minor flooding that sometimes plagues parts of Wyndham Road. The legacy also lingered on for several decades in the form of the flooding that often accompanied heavy rain resulting from water being pushed down the stream and flooding the bottom of coach road necessitating the construction of a large storm drain . All in all another case of planning decisions displacing problems from one location to another.

Tomorrow... remembering 'The Big Rec'.