MY STREET CHALLENGE - GREYWETHERS AVENUE

Because I was awake early this morning, due mainly to the fact that Mr. HCB’s mobile phone was beeping because the battery was almost dead, I was lying in bed wondering which street beginning with G I would do for my Street Challenge.  I could have done Graham Street, where I used to live or Groundwell Road, but decided on Greywethers Avenue.

Having made my decision, at 7.15 this morning, I went out to take photographs of this street before too many of the residents got up, as they might think it rather strange that an older more mature lady was taking photographs of their houses.  

Greywethers Avenue, built in 1938, just before the outbreak of the Second World War,  is in the Old Town area of Swindon and is a leafy, tree-lined avenue, where most of the gardens are well-kept, and which is almost crescent-shaped i.e. you can go in one way, drive round and come out a different way.  

The reason for the naming of this avenue, is that many greywether stones were unearthed here during the building work.  They now form the feature you can see in the top left photograph of my collage, greywether being the name for these sarsen stones which can also be found in the fields in many parts of Wiltshire.  

Sarsen stones are natural sandstone blocks and because of their durability and smooth surfaces, they are often used as markers or as bollards to protect buildings, and also as foundation stones.

There are many other sarsen stones in Wiltshire, the most famous being about 8 miles from where we live, at Avebury, a prehistoric site, which contains the largest stone circle in Europe and there are more at Stonehenge, about 40 miles away on Salisbury Plain, one of the wonders of the world and the best-known prehistoric monument in Europe.

After I left work and was helping at a nearby school once a week, when I had finished my stint, I often used to walk through The Lawns, and into Greywethers Avenue then on up into Old Town.  I have always liked this area of the town, but the houses are very expensive and we could never afford to live here.  They are typical pre-war, bay window houses, very like the one we lived in at Burford Avenue , but much larger.  

However, I must say I was surprised to see that at least one of the houses had its various recycling and rubbish bins in the front garden - not something I expected to see up here in what I would call an “upper class” area of the town - but I guess we all create rubbish, from the lowest to the highest in our society and it’s no different if you live in an expensive house!

“It didn't matter how big our house was; 
     it mattered that there was love in it.” 
Peter Buffett