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Laleham s Loss 50 Laleham s Loss
This poem was suggested by life-long Laleham Resident Beryl Shattock. Beryl has seen many changes in Laleham in her 90 years but believes that our loss of wildlife habitat and green spaces is the greatest shame and a little reported tragedy. An accident of geology finds this area rich in valuable minerals - but gravel raising has given no benefit to the people of Laleham. We are still fighting for the return of fields which were promised decades ago. Our village continues to be rubbished by greedy industrialists and ineffective controls...
The poem was first published in the Laleham Commonplace Book in 1995
Lalehams’s Loss By Roy Curtis Bramwell
Where they plan to raise the gravel, Whatever ton the promised yield, Was once the place we walked and talked, And picked the flowers of Gosness Field.
Larks still rise from Warress Furlong Looking down on half-filled pits: Chaw Mead, Acre Mead and Steane Plott –Lumps of concrete, cars in bits.
St. Clements Piece in bits and pieces, Laleham Common Mead all gone Forget the plants and birds and country Look instead at what you’ve won.
Miles and miles of concrete causeway, Yet another high-rise flat, Faceless suburb, motor highway, Gravel grubbers raise the dust in, Half the fields of Scrubbs Meadow, Laden lorries spilling ballast Round church corner as they go.
Forgotten fields that once were fertile Gone beneath the iron claw, Laleham’s loss is no one’s future THAT IS WHAT WE’RE FIGHTING FOR.
Most of the fields named above, as they were known in the Laleham Parish registers between 1623 & 1845, have completely or partially disappeared under water due to the extraction of gravel.
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