Two years of necessary disruption around Bath Abbey as the multi-million pound Footprint Project gets underway but l can’t resist pointing out how the hoarding has had a knock-on effect on the increased wear and tear of the green space around the obelisk in Orange Grove.
Looks as if the Parks Department are going to have to spend some money on re-turfing as – with restricted access for pedestrians on the pavement side of the road – it looks as if people are crossing over and walking along the lawned area on the other side.
As you can see its worn a bare patch – a grassless footpath created by those seeking a safer route.
Meanwhile, at the other end of Great Pulteney Street, l am still hopeful that Network Rail may do a bit of gardening themselves.
Brunel’s stone-lined cutting through this former Georgian pleasure park was all part of a plan by this brilliant engineer to turn this part of the route of his Great Western Railway into a stage.
His mechanical monsters would enter from ‘the wings’ either side and be cheered and hurrahed by those people enjoying the delights of this genteel Vauxhall and the steam and smoke and hissing of these strange mechanical devices.
Most of the hissing today is done by rail passengers but seeded saplings and weeds have taken hold in many places on this listed structure. Though the electrification programme on this line has ground to a halt at some point restoration is going to be costly.
Letting Nature take too much of a hold here is going to increase expenditure.
While we’re in Sydney Gardens l wonder if any of the ‘Friends’ might spare time to find a big stone or two to plug the hole in a wall near the Sydney Road side.
It’s reaching a stage where a big collapse could well happen and its a shame to see such a well-built structure fall for the sake of a bit of infilling.
Friends of Sydney Gardens are all crossed fingers of course – waiting to hear (by Christmas?) if they will get their HLF grant to begin re-invigorating one of Bath’s best-loved green spaces.
