It used to be called Camp Lane

This week's focus is Camp – as it was three weeks ago when we compared two photographs from different eras at Camp School, and the most recent one was 1938!  It was just possible that readers might recognise faces, and so it proved.  As soon as possible the version of the photos which appear on the website (School Groups 2) will have the names of those identified added.

Meanwhile the work undertaken during the winter to create the 2014 Fleetville Diaries' exhibition is complete.  CAMP: the place on The Hill where the Militias trained will have its first airing on Sunday 23rd March at the Fleetville Festival.  In previous years this event took place at Fleetville Junior School, but has now been relocated to St Paul's Church, beginning at 3pm.  There are more details on the Welcome page of the website.

The exhibition contains forty-five photos, together with a short story for each.  You'd be amazed at what you didn't know about this eastern residential district, which spreads from the bottom of Camp Hill all the way to Ashley Road.  Unless, of course you've never lived anywhere else.

The exhibition will also appear at Larks in the Parks at Fleetville Rec on Sunday 29th June.  Like other good 'pop-ups' look out for it at other locations during the year.

Linked to the exhibition is a new guided walk for 2014.  A Ramble Along Camp Lane takes place on the evening of Thursday 29th May, starting at 7pm.  However, twenty-five places only are available.  Booking details are available on this website and that of Fleetville Diaries.

How much Camp has changed.  Some years ago someone who had grown up in the district recalled the fields on each side of Camp Road, and how disappointed she was that they became built on.  That the rubber works came, and then went again; but in its place lots of people now have places to live at Dexter Court.  She remembered the open space at the Spring Field, between Camp Road and Cell Barnes Lane, now the location for the houses which line those roads and Springfield Road.  And the "wonderfully open fields"  on either side of Cell Barnes Lane, now home for hundreds of families.  The district is thriving and evolving: the library arrived, and then went; Mrs Harris' shop opened, stayed for a good number of decades, and then closed.  Businesses such as Mr Crain's taxi and coach operation occupied the triangular space near Ely Road, but is no more.

Is Camp a better place than it was?  Or is it just that it is different?  Do we like it as it was, or as it is? How would we like it to be better.  They sound like questions from a survey, don't they, but we are frequently making our personal judgements about the place where we live.  In one sense we don't want it to change, but in another ...