Beechwood from the Church Tower

These fairly modern photos have arrived at the museum via a roundabout route. I’m afraid we have no way of knowing, for sure, who the original photographer was. All three show a similar scene during the building of what was known as the Grove Farm Estate.

The area of Beechwood from the church tower in Market Lavington (1)

In this first photo work has clearly started on this part of the new housing estate. The route of Grove Road can be seen and items of builder’s equipment. A site hut, diggers and dumpers and some heaps of building materials are in place.

At the top left we can see the houses on Northbrook Close and the beech wood crosses the middle of the photo.

Moving forward in time we have photo number two.

The area of Beechwood from the church tower in Market Lavington (2)

The view is very similar and clearly building work has gone on. The house which stands on what is now Beechwood looks more or less complete and nestles under the beech wood. Work is going on nearer the churchyard, on what eventually became Roman Way and Saxon Close after an archaeological dig revealed important sites for both eras.

Our photographer (or maybe a different one) was not quite so accurate in composing picture three.

The area of Beechwood from the church tower in Market Lavington (3)

Many of the new houses are nearing completion, both down on Beechwood and in the nearer areas of Roman Way and Saxon Close

These photos date from around 1990 which is, of course, a quarter of a century ago.

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The Grove Farm Estate

It’s a couple of dozen years since buildings were going up in Beechwood, Roman Way and Saxon Close – new areas for buildings as far as modern Market Lavington was concerned.  The building works are fading into history so today we have a reminder.

It’s October 1990. Total chaos seems to reign and houses appear to be plonked randomly on the landscape in an area just below the churchyard.

Grove Farm Estate, Market Lavington under construction in October 1990

We can pick out areas in the background. Behind the new red roof we can see the roofs and chimneys on Northbrook Close and other houses along the track at the top of Northbrook.

In the background we see the top of Northbrook

At the extreme right we can see other houses on Northbrook, close by the stream.

Stream Cottage and other buildings near the Northbrook

The most distant of the new dwellings is definitely on Beechwood.

A new house on Beechwood

The view was taken from what are now the steps leading from Roman Way up to the churchyard and looking straight down Saxon Close.

 

Before the Grove Farm Estate

Many people realised that the building of the Grove Farm estate was a big change for the village of Market Lavington. This was a big development of new housing. Quite a few folks were out with cameras to record the scene.

We have recently been given some photos by a member of the Francis family. This family were the last to actually farm at Grove Farm and, indeed, one of the new roads was called Francis Road in honour of that family.

Here is one of the photos.

The start of work on the Grove Farm Estate in 1987

Work has just started in this view in which we look west over the fields. Lavington School is on the right hand edge of this photo.

Lavington School

Looking further round we can see the Park Road houses. We believe the house with windows in the roof line once belonged to Sybil Perry.

Park Road

Further round we see houses on The Spring

The Spring

Present day residents on Grove Farm quite often ask, ‘What used to be where my house is now?’ This photo really gives the answer – it was pasture land.

This photo and half a dozen others date from 1987. It may seem like only yesterday to many of us, but it is more than a quarter of a century ago. You’d need to be over thirty to have any real memories of the fields that were Grove Farm.