Nevells Road nursery has been gone for a while now, the houses and flats are filling up. Norton School closed several years ago is still waiting for development and the small offices of Noth Herts Windows is also waiting for redevelopment.

The old church at the corner of Icknield Way and Norton Way  North is empty, the congregation moving to one of the old Irvin factories looking for a developer.

A housing estate has been constructed on the old tennis club which has new "state of the art" premises at Muddy Lane.

Plans to add flats to the top of part of the shopping centre are in progress with sone businesses having to move to create access areas.

The Place is finally getting its lift installed.

The council are moving the housing department out of its old building down the road to the main offices. 

Bridger packagings old site in Birds Hill is a big hole in the ground as new flats and parking are constructed. Access to the site will apparently be from Norton Way and the Hideout Club will be demolished to make way for the new road. 

The foundation have announced major plans to improve the shopping centre. We are still waiting to see how this sorts itself out but some traders have left already as the rents have been raised and others are unhappy about the disruption / destruction that is going to affect their business again as they have to move about to make way for the demolition planned for the Wynd area.

Last time it was the changing of the layout of the streets and resurfacing pavements and roads. This was a few years ago which caused major upheaval, and these roads are already falling apart and being repaired.
 
 

Saturday started at 10.30 for the 11.00am launch at the Radwell Meadow location where a variety of invited guests including our local MP Oliver Heald,  author Mervyn Miller, representatives of various organisations, local TV news, and some of the people involved in the planning and development of the Greenway.

Stuart Kenny introduced the project and then invited the special celebrity guest, singer and gardener Kim Wilde ( who lives fairly locally) to officially open the walk

Once the ceremony was done there was champagne, food and music. By 12.30 most of the guests had drifted away. Kim off to a performance in Germany that night, others to their homes leaving the foundation's PR department, the marshals there to supervise the traffic, and the guest entertainment 
( a stilt walking, balloon blowing clown, a  chain saw carver, and face painter), all waiting to see who would turn up.

I left at just before 2pm, and while we chatting to the marshals at the gate a slow but steady stream of walkers and cars began to arrive. 

We returned the next day (a lovely warm sunny day) and found the area buzzing with people sitting, walking, picnicking, children playing on the climbing frame or watching the clown clowning.
The woodcarver busily carving in front his part of the audience, stopping occasionally for an ice-cream or to take orders (including mine).  Click on the pictures to enlarge.
 

Getting Started
Adding an owls' eyes with a smaller chain saw.		and feathers on its chest
There are carved animals, mainly hawks and owls. Benches, all carved in English Oak. Chris has a pile of sections of trunk of various lengths and thickness on his pick-up truck.He takes these from one demonstration to another around the country, during the busy season of craft and country fairs.	A finished item, Hawk / Wood Spirit Totem pole	Working on commissions at the demonstrations and taking new orders as he works Chris is very busy producing his very individual style of art.     CHRIS HEAD  CHAIN SAW CARVER
	The owl in the background of the first picture of this group is the one started yesterday morning
Detail on the back and tail
	The finishing touches are added with blow torch which adds texture and colour but that was not part of the demonstration today.	Chris is very busy and told me that he prefers in main to take orders at his demonstrations to make sure he doesn't get overloaded He has orders for at least the next six months and this is just the beginning of the season.. If you cant get to one of Chris's shows you might be interested in Denis Heath a Stevenage based artist working in the same medium. Visit his Web Site

All the usual attractions plus a lot more for this climax to the Greenway Opening Event.
 

First Sight of the Greenway

A pathway  around the whole of Letchworth is to be constructed up to 15 metres wide to enable walking or riding (horses and bikes) away from the  roads and built up areas. Extensively planted with trees in places,  the Foundation has negotiated with its tenants and other authorities to use edges of fields and existing paths to create a walk that by 2003 that will be 15 miles long and stretch from Hitchin to Baldock and from Stotfold to the southern villages of the estate.

This project amongst other topics was discussed at the meeting of the Letchworth Garden City Society with John Hillson of the Heritage Foundation, at The Settlement on 10 September.
 

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Opening of the Greenway