The gentle lane

It will not have escaped the notice of regular drivers or walkers along Marshalswick Lane – the gentle lane of old and formerly known as New Road – how many addresses sport a builder's board at the boundary.  Even where no board exists, there is evidence of recent activity; the result of upgrading, extending, or at its most radical, demolition and re-building.

All of this current activity is on the southern side; the pre-war Marshalls Wick estate, even though several of the houses were not erected until the post-war years.  You bought a plot and paid for a bespoke design.  Which explains the variety of homes, from modest to 'manor house'. retiring to bold, two storey and bungalow.  Walk along the road today, and there is still evidence of the narrow lane along the footpath, where the hedge still forms the property boundary.

It's a far cry from the days when the bus couldn't get along the lane to serve the, then new homes of Kingshill Avenue on the other side of the road.

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If you are still aching to tell a story about your school experiences, then it is still not too late to tell it.  The exhibition by Fleetville Diaries for 2012 is The Best Days of Our Lives.  It will first appear at the Fleetville Festival on Sunday March 25th at Fleetville Junior School.

How the Lane is changing; the south side is keeping many
builders in business as existing homes are upgraded,
extended, or simply replaced.

Email the author, or Liz Bloom of Fleetville Diaries (there's a link on the links page).  Better still if it includes a photograph.  The next three weeks will be busy but we will welcome any new contributions up to the last minute.