The pond in the park

In your description of Oldton Park you suggest that there may have been a pond. I am delighted to be able to confirm that there was a pond and not just any old pond. I recall "sailing" my most treasured toy, a battery operated model motor boat, on the pond on many occasions. The pond was oval in shape and had a tarmac path around its perimeter. There were benches positioned every ten yards or so along the path way to allow parents and grandparents to sit down and rest while their children and grandchildren sailed their model boats on the pond. The pond was not very deep and no afternoon was complete without some poor parent having to wade in and rescue a capsized model sailing boat. When it was very sunny the children would get in and paddle in the pond. There was nothing like the Oldton Park pond where I lived and the only times I could use my model boat was when I went to Oldton for the holidays.

As I think back now I don't think I was ever happier as a child than when I was playing with that model boat in the sunshine at Oldton Park pond. Just over a foot long and technologically incredibly crude by modern standards my "Cabin Cruiser" (what a dated phrase that is) was just over a foot long. Its propeller was driven by a little electric motor which in turn was powered by two U2 batteries. There was no fancy radio control. You just positioned the rudder to steer the boat in the direction you wanted it to go, pressed the button, put it in the water and off it went. Then you scampered to the other side of the pond to collect it as it approached the edge. It seems astonishing now to recall how much pleasure this simple pastime could give.

I remember the pond ringing with the excited voices of children, the barking of pye dogs and the exasperated shouts of parents. It is sad to think that Oldton has gone and never again will a child launch his or her boat on the high seas of Oldton Park pond.

Martin