By Trish Andrews
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| View from the field. |
This special relationship of people and fields started over
one hundred years ago. Garden Suburb
houses were built in Dursley between 1908 and 1910, on low slopes of escarpment
fields, beneath hillside woods. One row
had two alleyways, giving access to meadowland at the back. Diana Barton was born, at Number 10, in 1920. Once old enough, she was out there, following
the established pattern of local children, playing with friends, making dens, gaining
wonderful, outdoor experience.
She was my mother. Born
in July 1945, I too grew up at Number 10.
My friend’s garden bordered the fields, neighbourhood children continued
to play there. My children grew up at 53,
making them, with other local children, a third generation, able to enjoy everything
the open green space behind our houses had to offer. With post-war change to much easier
lifestyles, parents and grandparents gained time to join in with leisure
activities and the fields became a meeting ground for entertainment between
family groups. Nobody was ever approached
by a landowner.
In 2010, contractors appeared, stripped the fields of all
surface growth and decimated wildlife. Huge
bonfires burnt for weeks. Shrubs at the woodland edge deemed not a hedge
were removed. The landowner organised
Dursley town council to re-fence their wood and circulated his intention to
introduce horses. Field- use by
neighbours continued as ever, avoiding contractors, but the motive was
questioned, and doubted. However,
nothing further happened. If any of us
had known about Town Green status, we would have applied then.
Just before August Bank Holiday, 2013, copies of a
pre-planning proposal, for 69 houses on two fields off Hardings Drive, Dursley
– those behind Garden Suburb - were hand-delivered from Snooks Planning
Consultants, on behalf of clients, to all properties adjoining the fields. They omitted to notify Dursley Town Council,
as owners of adjacent woodland and gave residents a paltry seven days, to
respond with opinions. Following
complaints, the time was extended.
These are Cotswold edge escarpment fields, within the AONB
(Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty) and compose the only open green space
visible from Parsonage Street, in Dursley town centre. Their part in creating the town’s pleasant rural
aspect and ambiance is vital. Replacing these
green fields with a housing estate would completely ruin the appearance and
nature of this town.
On 29 August 2013, residents from Torchacre Rise, Hardings
Drive, Cedar Drive, Garden Suburb, Burnt Oak, Westfield and other areas, met at
the Kingshill Inn to begin an Action Group Campaign. Over 70 local people attended, giving support
and help to fight any proposed development.
Memberships were taken and a steering group formed which met to
establish the forward process.
It quickly came to light that one member had been involved
with a Town Green application and after research, he thought the considerable
use locals made of the fields, beyond the required 20 year period, ‘as of
right’, without hindrance or permission, qualified us to apply. The process would delay any planning
application until finalised, success would give the fields their best possible
protection.
The immediate glitch was new rules for Town and Village
Green applications from 1 October, 2013, would make this
status more difficult to achieve. We had
two weeks to write as many witness statements as possible, supported by
photographic evidence and apply under the old rules. Love of the fields, passionate that they stay
as open green space and community spirit kicked in. We went for it, found an amazing solicitor,
who checked legal aspects in our endeavours, achieved copies of everything,
made sure we were as presentable as possible and charged nothing! No time to organise a community pot, anyway! Our application was hand-delivered to Legal
Services, Gloucester, at 2 pm on Monday 30 September 2013, the last day!
Between us, we recorded a fabulous array of field activities
for the requirement of comprehensive use over the previous twenty years, with
some of our long-term residents able to go much further back than required. Naturally, there are all the usual events of daily
walkers with and without dogs, adult walkers with and without children. But we have a history of unaccompanied
children using the fields for play and learning, den-making, sporting games,
games of imagination. Children at play
all day, safe in the knowledge that they are free to do so, with home in easy
reach if wanted, parents supplying picnics, children within easy call when they
had to come in.
There have been organised events, team games of cricket and
football, kite-flying, birthday parties, bonfire parties, November the 5th
celebrations with fireworks. Tents have
been put up and children have camped overnight without adult intrusion. From the first appearance of good snow, it’s
a steep slope, scream-inducing, fun-fair toboggan ride.
Teaching the ways of wildlife and encouraging children to
grow up revere our countryside landscape and preserve its legacies for future
generations, is high on the list of importance for so many parents and
grandparents who have accessibility, on their doorsteps, by living in a spectacular
rural area.
The fields off Hardings Drive are loaded with exciting
wildlife for adults and children to seek out and enjoy together. We have bats, foxes, badgers, squirrels, an
array of mice, shrew and vole prey items for raptors, many amphibians, frogs,
toads, palmate and common newts, slow worms, birds of woodlands, birds of fields,
butterflies, caterpillars, grasshoppers, crickets, shield bugs, other bugs and beetles,
plus three types of deer with regularly produced fawns. The One Show nature team visited the site in
2008, stayed longer than scheduled as wildlife was so impressive and put out a
prime-time television programme as a result.
Bird watching is a serious hobby for many people who walk this
lovely area. So is landscape
appreciation. Walking from Hardings
Drive, the fields rise steeply and the view opens up behind. Turning, reveals the hanging valley Dursley
nestles in, a landscape of surrounding Cotswold scarp slopes, bordered by
beautiful hills, clockwise from Cam Peak, Cam Longdown, Downham, the south face
of Uley Bury, showing its Iron Age defences, then miles of woods and escarpment
fields curving round from Uley village.
No wonder, then, between wildlife and landscape, these fields have huge attraction
for amateur and more professional photographers. Owners of Clifton Cameras, Dursley, have just
moved premises to double their floor space.
Customers are directed in the street, to focus their prospective
purchases on Hardings Drive fields. In
rain, an assistant holds the umbrella!
Please support our Town Green application. These fields are
vital to our community, too lovely to lose and every letter counts. The address is: Head of Legal Services, (on
behalf of the registration authority), Legal Services, Shire Hall, Gloucester, GL1
2TG, and quote reference JKS/51943
Trish Andrews is not a Green Party member but asked us to share this blog to raise awareness of the issues.
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