Fields & Play Equipment
The Parish Council owns four open spaces - the King George V playing field (for which it is the trustee) on Church Street; the playing field at the end of Dean Rise; Dene Green; and the Centenary Garden at the bottom of Dines Close.
The play equipment situated on KGV and Dean Rise fields has an annual RoSPA safety inspection by PlaySafety Ltd, and their latest reports can be found below. The Parish Council is responsible for maintaining this equipment. A brand new see saw was built by volunteers in June 2020, with a kind donation of wood from Mr Frank Haighton.
The tennis court on KGV is free to use and the net is in place between Easter and the October half term. Please note that the children at the Primary School have exclusive use of the tarmacced and fenced area as a playground, during school hours. *
Dene Green, adjacent to the A343 at the north end of Hurstbourne Tarrant, is currently being cultivated as an environmental project by the HBeeT Wildlife Group. You will find a noticeboard on the side of the brick bus shelter, giving information about the Group and what is happening on the Green.
The Parish Council has installed park and picnic benches across the four sites, for visitors to rest and enjoy the surroundings.
The Centenary Garden was created in November 2018, in time for the 100th anniversary of the end of the Great War, with the vision that it would be used not only for quiet reflection, but also by local children as a safe place to play. We hope that those who gave their lives in conflict to ensure our freedom today would agree.
* as a trustee of the King George V Playing Field (Charity no: 1084447) the Parish Council has a responsibility for its upkeep. Should anyone wish to use the field or tennis court area for a business use (rather than for a charitable purpose), prior consent must be sought from the Parish Council (by way of application to the clerk), appropriate public liability insurance will be required to be provided by the event organiser and a donation made for ongoing improvements to recreational facilities for community's benefit.
The Mystery of the See Saw Bones ....
At the end of May 2020, taking advantage of the closures owing to the Covid-19 lockdown, Councillors John Bentley, Mark Thomas and Ian Kitson undertook some repairs and maintenance to the KGV play equipment. Ian's trusty JCB helped access various high points, as well as dig a hole for the new see saw, built from scratch by them, making use of a kindly donated piece of wood from Mr Frank Haighton.
However, whilst digging, some bones were retrieved from under the old see saw foundations ... reminiscent of Midsomer Murders, John went on the hunt for more information. You will be pleased to hear the bones are not an unsolved village murder, but from a cow .... quite how that got there is another question?!
Mystery solved??
Whilst writing this, I remembered seeing a photograph (courtesy of the HBT Historical Society) of the primary school in, believed, the 1930s. You will see on the left of the photo, stood where the house called Byways now is, some cows! This was probably prior to the end of the 1930s when the land (which belonged to Medlands Farm) was bequeathed to the Parish Council to be forever kept in trust as a recreation ground.
