Recollections of Thorp Arch Park

We used to get rides on the site dump truck. My father bought ‘off-plan’ and was the first to do so, having driven through the village while house-hunting and seeing a sign with the developer’s name on it before the properties had been marketed. We moved in in summer 1965. We weren’t the first to move in though, as we had to wait for the services (gas, electricity, sewers) to be laid. The house cost £7,500!

Between placing the order and moving in the developers realised that, if they made some of the garages two cars deep rather than two cars wide, they could fit in an extra plot. So anyone who hadn’t specifically asked for a wide garage had a bit shaved off their property. The developer’s response was that if you don’t like it you can cancel the order, but prices were going up fast so people couldn’t argue without losing out.

Ours was also the first to have an extension. Dad started his own business, so we had an office built over the garage. It was only a few years later, but it cost another £3,000 (high inflation in those days). There’s hardly a house remaining that hasn’t been added to now.

The gardens on the river/wood side of the road were originally about 10 metres shorter, until someone realised that the developers had placed the fences too close to the houses, so they had to move them! There was an old tower on the top of the rise, up from the green (function unknown) that was demolished just before we moved in.

John Train (original owner of Castle Glebe) dug a pit under his garage for car inspection, and found an old section of a castle wall – hence the name of the house maybe? The garage was replaced by the current dining room. Pear Tree Acre was still an orchard – I remember scrumping apples with the Waddington boys.

David Cummings’ book probably has much more info. Though I seem to recall he got the final completion date wrong, which resulted in a heated debate at a Village Society Pub Quiz a few years ago.