AFTER reading the story on page 20 of the Andover Advertiser ‘Back Through the Pages’ (February 26) where they were going to start work on King Arthurs Way, well I thought you might like to hear what it used to be like.

Well first it was a lovely big meadow. It went right down to the railway and we used to wave to the people on the trains. Sometimes the express would whiz past on his way to Waterloo or Exeter.

The other side ran parallel to Enham Road separated by a hedge. Down at the corner by the arch was where the prisoners of war camps were.

If you look at that picture in the paper at the very top you will see what looks like two trees.

Well we used to call that ‘The Clump’ because it was just that — a clump of trees round a big dip, sort of like the Daisy Dell, only much smaller.

It was full of nettles and stuff. We used to sit very quiet round the rim and see the rabbits. I used to like to lay out in that meadow and watch the larks way up in the sky.

I wonder if you can imagine that meadow covered in chicken hen coops. You see my grandfather was a game keeper and one year all those little coops had a mother hen and she had some pheasant eggs to hatch. Grandad had a little hut out there where he kept all chicken feed to feed all those birds.

What a big job that was and all where King Arthurs Way is now. We used to pick mushrooms out in that field too.

As for Enham Road, well I wouldn’t recognise it now.

Time was when we could walk all the way to Knight’s Enham and not a car or person all the way. Just a quiet country road.

I hope you don’t mind me writing this but my memories are so vivid of how it used to be.

I had a very happy childhood at Shepherd’s Spring.

Best wishes to you all and thanks to Mr Kane for his ‘Back Through the Pages’ each week.

Muriel Bower, Morrisburg, Ontario, Canada