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The Weed Gardens

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caldrail

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Yesterday, in a decision that only an englishman could make, I went out in the midday sun and visited Lydiard Park. The local council make a big deal of the work they've done there which was supposed to restore the grounds of Lydiard Manor to it's former magnificence.

 

I've got many photographs of Lydiard as it was. Secluded bayous, wooded paths, a warm natural patina. There used to be a waterside platform where you could look out across a small lake and view cranes resting on a dead tree in the centre of the water. It all had a picturesque quality to it, something very ideal and to be honest a place where you could marvel at the beauty of nature in a very subtle way. It was, by accident, as close to principles of a japanese garden as you could get. Tranquil.

 

Not any more. The woodland has been cut back, the bayous swept away to recreate the old lake, everything opened up to the sun in an attempt to make the place more attractive to lots of people who really don't appreciate natural beauty much, and I suspect, attempted by people who don't much appreciate it either. It now looks exactly what it is. A weed infested demolition site. The lake is cold and artificial (not to mention stagnant), the gravel paths bare and garish, the woodland peripheral and unwanted. You might best describe Lydiard Park as a bird with it's plumage well and truly plucked.

 

There was a time you could visit Lydiard and return refreshed from experiencing the natural warmth. Now you either play ball games or get bored by it. After all the money they spent on tearing the place apart, you'd think there was something to show for it. Oh yes. I forgot. I see they've just installed a fountain in the lake. Well that makes all the difference doesn't it?

 

Weedy Swindon

The decay and wanton vandalism of Lydiard Park isn't unique in Swindon. Around the borough are areas where buildings are lying abandoned or demolished. The same pale gravelly landscape and its weedy foliage are well established. There's a house under construction near where I live which still has brick and breeze block walls two foot high. The weeds have grown faster. The Old College site looks ever more dilapidated every day, more broken windows, more weeds sprouting under the vandalised wooden fence around it. For a town that's been promoting regeneration and beautification, it all looks like a lot of hot air and incompetence. Oh yeah. Weeds too.

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Ahh yes, and in a couple of years people will be surprised by all the plastic bottles, cans, food wrappings, soiled diapers and any other form of human refuse that people will leave all over this "new" park.

 

It happens here as well... there was a nice little nature walk tucked away really where only the local residents knew of it and could enjoy it. Someone decided that that just wasn't good enough, cut away many of the trees, added a few truck loads of sand for the new "beach" volleyball court, put in a giant kids jungle gym complete with that recycled tire rubber ground mat, a fresh layer of asphalt for the new basketball court (I mean who really doesn't want to hear the incessant sound of a basketball bouncing on hard pavement when trying to enjoy nature), a giant pavilion, and an obscene bridge over the "wetlands" so people won't have to get their feet wet on the new playground, er I mean nature walk.

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Yes, sounds familiar. In fairness though Lydiard Park is now used as a venue for open air concertes (The BBC held one there a month or two ago) so the rubbish problem is actually not an issue.

 

The problem is that the people responsible for the park wanted a big grass lawn for people to laze around on. It's as if single mothers and their noisy offspring are all that matter.

 

That's as far as their imaginations and experience go regarding the use of public space. They're trying to do the same to Queens Park and that will be a tragedy.

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