THERE was trouble down't park in 1950. A disgruntled ratepayer wrote to the paper: "I wish to draw attention to the disgraceful condition of Hatfield Rd. Park (if it is a park).
"It is more like the Thames Embankment and has been a menace now for a long time. There is no drainage and it is very dangerous for children playing nearby. Perhaps when something serious has happened, we may get something done.
"There has been a lot of money spent around the Civic Centre, and a little money spent on this park would be appreciated by all the nearby residents."
With the letter appeared these pictures showing what the correspondent was writing about. The park at that time had been open almost 40 years (before that the land had been boarded into two parts, one used as a bowling green and the other as allotments), and had once been a pleasant flower garden. During the war an iron fence had been removed, but in 1950, as you can see, water had lodged in the sunken part of the park.
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