THE LITTLE PEOPLE

This is one of the doors of the little people under the shopping arcade. Their tunnels are gouged out deep beneath the shops, and even if you were tiny enough to fit through the doors, or for that matter, knew the secret password to open them, you would soon be lost in the maze of passages and stairways that make up their kingdom. The Little People are, to their minds anyway, gainfully employed during the dark hours, when the precinct is locked to the public. They come out of their underground hideaway and slap big red Sale or Closing Down Everything Must Go stickers on the shop windows. In their most mischievious moods they can completely strip a shop of its wares overnight, whitewash the windows, and change the locks. Shop assistants turn up for work the next day and are left befuddled and bemused, not having realised that their particular niche in the retail market had been so badly hit by the recession. But after a few mutterings and shaking of heads they trudge down to the Jobcentre and join the queue. The Little People titter and await the opening of the next charity shop in the denuded premises. It has been said that the underground tunnels stretch as far as the castle but a more recent detour has been carved out towards the district council chambers.