As I write, wide areas of Northernhay Gardens' lawns have been trampled to mud. Vehicle tracks have torn up the ground. The gates are still locked against the citizens of, and visitors to, our city. By my reckoning the park has, for more than 72 days. ( about the fifth part of a year.) either been locked up or has been a fairground From before Remembrance Sunday, though the Christmas weeks and well into the New Year the Gardens qua gardens have been denied to the people and they have been well and truly 'disfigured' by being hired out to serve as an amusement park.
Fairs are fun but a less suitable site for a fairground than our exceptionally lovely Northernhay Gardens is hard to imagine!
Compared to us, the Victorian RATEPAYER below, whose letter appeared in the Express and Echo of 12th August 1896, had little to complain about, yet no citizens nowadays seems greatly to care!!! Perhaps some will when they are permitted to see the state of the park:]
"Sir,
"Kindly allow me a short space in your valuable paper concerning Northernhay. On Saturday afternoon, about 4.30, i should have liked a mouthful of fresh air, but I was refused admission on account of a 'private' garden party.
"We all have to pay to keep the grounds in order, and it is very hard when one cannot enjoy the beauties of Northernhay after a hard day's work.
"I notice that the turf, which we are not allowed to walk on, is cut up with tent pegs, and the borders of the turf driven over in a reckless way by the vehicles of Saturday last.
"I have seen several little children ordered off, and sometimes the gardener has used more force than he ought, because they have simply walked across the turf; but others who have permission may come and disfigure the place as much as they choose.
Yours,
A RATEPAYER."
And are not the concluding 15 words true today?
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