The Close

‘The Close’ – that patch of wild ground behind Farnham Road; apart from the well worn short cut that led past Mr Body’s Market Garden towards Oldton’s high street the rest of ‘The Close’ was a jungle playground for Amazonian adventurers. We built secret dens that were protected from intruding gangs by fearsome nettles. Sitting on old bits of carpet and bracken we rubbed our bright red stinging legs with dock leaves and shared a shilling bag of reject tomatoes from Mr Body. Like everyone else we giggled about him leaving bouquets of his prize winning dahlias at the door of Miss Hammond’s wool shop, the tiniest shop in Castle Arcade . That was where our grandmothers discussed knitting patterns and the advantages of three ply and four ply and gossiped about who was buying bootee and matinee jacket patterns.

Does anyone know if Mr Body ever plucked up enough courage to ask Miss Hammond out?

‘The Close’ is now a development of ‘unique executive homes situated in picturesque Oldton’. Where there are no stinging nettles

Alison Chinn