Thornbury Wayfinders

I have recently received a letter from the Park Farm Residents’ Committee drawing my attention to their response to the plans for a new estate between the Park Farm Estate and Oldbury Lane ( P24/02413/RM). Sounds dry doesn’t it?

But they have raised some interesting points. First, there was the way one of the Park Farm roads – Buttercup Road was going to be extended into the new estate interrupting “the continuity of Park Farm Trim Trail.” They wanted there to be a raised pedestrian crossing instead of diverting the trail a little way down Buttercup Road. I suspect there is some obtuse regulation that determines how these things are done, but I bet you didn’t know that Park Farm had a Trim Trail. It really is a thing of joy. I took a group from Walking Well that way a few weeks ago and I had a job getting them off it!

Another point was that sufficient thought hadn’t been given to how the footpaths might link the two estates to ensure proper community cohesion. The problem is, there is an excellent hedge between the two estates, which hosts splendid bird life. This needs to be protected from casual damage that would have to be paid for by the residents of Park Farm. On the other hand it would be a good thing for there to be properly managed access – perhaps at the east end of the hedge, so that the Trim Trail might be a shared asset.

At the same time, it was felt that the paths on the new estate should be created so that they did not need continual maintenance. Grass paths would become muddy and would not be accessible by bicycles, mobility scooters and pushchairs. They suggested the paths should be surfaced with Breedon Golden Amber gravel, which is presumably the surface used in existing estates around Thornbury, which I tend to call The Yellow Brick Road as in the Wizard of Oz.

I have always wondered what that surface was. “Breedon” refers to Breedon on the Hill, which is visible from the A42, the link road between the M1 and the M42. The hill looks as if it has nearly been quarried away. Breedon are now quarrying limestone near Charfield in partnership with the Tortworth Estate.