The Brewery Field is the new community open space that lies at the heart of Orchard Street, Westgate and Parklands.
The Westgate Residents’ Association is happy to devote this part of its web space to a joint venture designed to support the creation of the Friends of The Brewery Field, following the successful public meeting on the 12th November 2015.
A steering committee is now being formed and will meet in later in the year with a mandate to set up this new organisation. It is essential that representatives of all residents’ associations that border onto this new public space coordinate their actions in relation to the Field’s management and exploitation so that it remains in the public domain.
Where is the field?
There is only one access to the Field currently, via the County Archive Car Park. One of our residents, Annette is a dog walker and has sent in this photo of the welcome we get at the moment:
So in February, the Steering Committee officers (made up of officers from the three host RAs – Westgate, Orchard St and Parklands) held a meeting with Annette on site to look at the situation.
A look at the field
Below are some photos of the space as it looked at the beginning of December 2015. We all need to get our thinking caps on about what we are going to do to turn this space into a useful resource for the communities of the Westgate, Orchard St and Parklands RAs.
We get some fantastic mature trees
This clump would make a great meeting place and focal point for summer gatherings:
There are some goalposts still up
Not sure if this one is dead or severely pollarded.
The council has cleared some of the gloomy leylandii bordering Henty Gardens
This copse forms an important wildlife corridor and will be a great resource for observation of birds, mammals and insects
This tree is not in such good shape and the area around it is a little hazardous
However the rough space and old logs at its feet will no doubt turn out to be a treasure trove of beetles and other small wildlife
Access
Access will be an issue. This the current exit/entrance to the park via the County Records Office car park
Not looking its best! Walking back along the path to the road this is the view:
It’s going to take a bit of imagination to make this into an attractive approach that will draw people down into the park
A green corridor
On the far side is the green corridor that runs along the backs of the houses in Parklands who have direct access onto the field from their gardens:
A general view of the field from the Parklands end on a grey winter’s day with Henty Gardens in the distance. It’s a start!
And finally a Spring 2016 view looking into the south west corner
