Last Updated on February 19, 2023
Contributed on 10th July 2009
I used to visit Shrubland Park as a young boy in the 50s. My Grandfather was born in one of the row of cottages. His father used to work on the estate, I do not know as what but I used to go there for holidays with my grandparents and remember the water pump outside the cottages and the lovely peace. I used to lie in bed and hear the wood pigeons calling and to this day (I am 60 now) every time I hear a wood pigeon I think of there. I to remember sitting outside the Sorrel Horse with my bottle of Vimto and a packet of crisps. My grandfather and I used to play cricket in the park and I remember the wooden roundhouse that I think at the time was rented to two doctors. At the back of the cottages there were some conifers and the smell when they were damp stays with me to this day. Another thing that takes me back. I remember visiting there a few years ago and the cottages I think had been knocked into one, but still looked the same outside. I loved it there and was my introduction to the beauty of the countryside and all its life. I think I will have to find somewhere I can get Vimto again. I now live in Devon.
Roderick is your farther called Donald???