A little wander at the weekend from the old town, into the very early parts of the new town, and ending up in Newhall - didn’t feel tempted to take any more pics of that though!
North Lodge was one of the old entry points to the Mark Hall Estate as I understand it - it can be found down at the bottom of town adjacent to the Netteswell Road walking and cycle track and the road end at Stackfield, and is well worth a look (check out the amazing chimneys) but be respectful as people do live there!
From there I walked through Park Hill (taking note of the lovely Oddfellows Terrace) before turning left along Broadway Avenue - with its classic 1930’s semis lining the avenue each side it looked rather fine in the sunshine. A bit of a wiggle at the end brought me into Jocelyns- and an intriguing glimpse of a view…
Sure enough, the thoughtful approach that was taken with the original build of the New Town was in evidence here as behind me was a low-rise flat block - even the first floor here must have amazing views (there is no ground floor flats as far as I could see with that being given over to garages and storage sheds) and the top floor must be able to see for miles. The architect here also took the “view through” approach that we also see elsewhere (The Chantry, I think?) with this walkway underneath the flats…
You can see how it allows a view through to the houses and the hill below. The intention of these was to “frame” particular views, although this one is slightly off the mark perhaps with the houses in place!
Via Station road and back in to the old town proper - and a couple of interesting plaques with something in common…
The first on the Victoria Hall Theatre, the second on the wall of the building it refers to - the link of course being the first and second World Wars.
From there into one of my favourite streets in the town - Bury Road. Such a complete mosh mash of building styles - it really is worth a stroll if you’re not familiar with it. A couple of my favourites here (although the next time I walk along there I will probably choose two completely different favourites!)
The red brick house doesn’t seem to have a name - fairly unusual for the larger properties along here - while the yellow brick terraces are called Kimberley Terrace (nearest the camera) and Colenso Terrace and are dated at 1900 and 1901 respectively. I particularly like the thin metal railings round the front gardens - giving an impression of the “open fronts” which were such a feature of the New Town. Colenso Terrace also provides us with a further link to WW1 as sadly in early 1917 in the space of just a few weeks, the sons of both no 1 & no 4 were killed in action. First A E Seymour on February 17th, then Herbert Clements - on March 26th.
Robyn
