Half way down the Bourne Road side of the park.
Stop 11 – Of Football practise, Milwall FC, and the Scouts .
Sunset from Havelock Rec
Narrator: This part of the field is behind Bourne Road, and the space in front of you is the best spot in Bromley to capture a good sunset on your camera!
Narrator: In the first decade or so after being grassed over, our park was used for football club training, by Millwall FC. This had to be abandoned, when a piece of glass worked it’s way up from the landfill, and injured a player. Until the last few years, Millwall FC would still hold an annual dinner at one of the restaurants on Homesdale road.
GASP football club practise on Saturday mornings
Read by Andrew: “Tony, my friend, a retired butcher was telling me that during WW2, they used the pits to dump the debris from bombed houses, things like bricks, wood, house fittings etc. After the war the area was grassed over and used as a football pitch. Problem was that even when things are buried, the lighter materials come to the surface, and this includes the broken glass from all the house windows, which resulted in some pretty horrific injuries. Imagine the consequences of a slide tackle over broken glass . . .” Daniel Bentley writing as Chatterton Road History Society, in 2017
Narrator: The local scout group, 3rd Bromley, regularly use the park for their activities, and have done so for a long time….
3rd Bromley scouts and parents playing ball games on the park
Lilian’s memory from 2015, read by Sandra: “The Queens Silver Jubilee celebration was A Big Do, and the community got together on the Brickfield. Like most of the marquees, the Scout’s pavilion did games for the kids. I believe there was also a Tea Tent, nowadays you’d probably call that a refreshment tent. Mostly everyone put on games and sporty things for the kids. At the time Jean New was the Akela, and she lived in Mornington avenue, at number 4 – opposite me at number 5a – which is how I got involved in the first place. She used to use the Brickfield for cubs. The Brickfield is the only open space that the scouts can do the parts of their organisation’s programme, including: ball games, compass work and teaching tent pitching.”
Narrator: Continue down the side of the park to the shady corner with the large trees, next to the Nursery.