Lack of Civic Pride...or does anyone care? - TrustNews September 2006
- ...Oh, yet
- Stands the clock at ten to three
- And is there honey still for tea?
No, Rupert Brooke was not referring to Winchester’s Brooks clock on St George’s Street which after many weeks, still stands with its hands at three o’clock!
Just walk around the corner and look at the map of Winchester on the wall of Marks & Spencers and observe the non-existent street linking Parchment Street! Why have our planners not told us about this new street? On asking a Council Officer at the Town Forum on Transport, I was told the map had been put up by a commercial organisation and “it was nothing to do with us pal.”
Then just walk to the railway station (sorry, we are supposed to call it a train station now, this sudden change in our language was started by Radio Solent a few years ago) and try and read the ‘chopped’ version of a map of Winchester in the information panel provided by South West trains. According to the map, Stockbridge Road goes over the railway line. My letter to South West Trains in London, was referred to the local manager based not in Winchester but in Eastleigh and, regardless of the error being pointed out, the same error was still repeated in the new panel. The original map was undertaken by the printers of the eagerly awaited Historic Town Atlas of Winchester, the new one being ‘chopped’ is not attributable.
Even in Peninsula Barracks the new signs giving details of historic interest, spell Wellington with one ‘l’. One wonders, who checks and proof reads these details before signing off the invoice?
At the turn of the century, the Winchester Improvement Society was set up to help publicise the City; perhaps such a body should be resurrected.
Oh, and by the way, I was given the book “Grumpy Old Men” but gave up reading it after two chapters when I realised I agreed with everything written!.