Glemsford Changes

One of the ultimate clichés of history is that "Change happens". Karl Marx built his reputation on the truth of that statement.
The complementary cliché has it that "You never notice change happening, only when it has happened".
Thus the inevitability of some yearning for Times Past, "The Good Old Days", or, more simply, a fascination for how different things used to be - in other words, History

These musings were provoked, partly, by the Chairman of the Local History Society, Patrick Currie, reflecting on just how much change there has been in Glemsford in the 4 years or so since Pauline and he moved into the village.

This is a list they compiled in March 2006, and I suspect it is already out of date:

1. Scotswood Bridge re-opening
2. Seabrooks Terrace for sale
3. Horsehair factory closed
4. Horsehair factory apartments for sale
5. Glassworks closed
6. Glassworks apartments for sale
7. Downs Engineering closed
8. Fullers closed
9. Antiques centre opened
10. Flax Lane ( Lee's/Barrett-Lee garage ) apartments completed
11. Argents closed Dec 2005
12. Skateboard equipment dismantled
13. “Tin-Tab” re-clad in wood
14. Greyhound House sign removed
15. Cherry Tree pub re-modelled
16. Hunts Hill hole-in-the-ground June Dec 2004
17. Fair Green re-defined
18. Fair Green bottle banks removed
19. Chequers Lane residential development 2002
20. Post Office Lane allotments closed 2003
21. School Field allotments closed 2005
22. Church repairs ( North Porch ) 2005
23. Speed limit on Lower Road
24. Manor Cars ( at Glemsford Tyres ) Dec 2005
25. New Skateboard park opened April 2006
26. Post-Office changes hands
27. Willow Farm Shop expansion
28. Methodist Hall refurbishment opened 14 Jan 2006
29. Glemsford garages stops petrol sales
30. Lower Road Garage closes
31. Visit by Fair on Tower Meadow
32. Gala day resumed 3 July 2004
33. Extensions to The Briars.
34. Flamenco at Black Lion 26 Dec 2005
35. Re-thatching ( Skates Hill, Egremont St x 3 )
36. New buildings at school
37. Christmas Lights ( Hunts Hill, Kings Rd, Lion Rd )
38. Re-direction of Stansted flight path
39. Duffs Hill Barns development
40. Crown P.H. licensee changes

We can already add the Bakery to this file.
You will also notice a lot of dates missing from this list - which rather goes to support my earlier point about "not noticing it till it's gone" - but if you can help with dates, let me or Patrick know.

And, just to emphasise how quickly Change happens and becomes established fact, what about these two photos, taken in 2000:

How long will it be before people ask why Post Office Lane is so-called?

And how many people could tell you that this house:

was once the Post Office, and that, when it closed, the Village was split by the protests against a move to Fair Green?

Patrick and Pauline's thoughts took me back to some work that was done, partly by the infant Local History Society "back in the 1990s".