With the destruction of the Glebe field – at the heart of village life for hundreds of years – our village takes another step to suburbia. It is poignant to reflect on the loss of this lovely village in the name of progress. In light of Horsham District Council’s decision to bow to Diocese pressure, we appear to be losing sight of the things which make Sussex such a special place to live – the heritage, the landscape and the country ways.
SPANGLE members have been out and about in the past week chatting to villagers – both old and new. All have shared their disappointment with the development.
Those who bothered to look beyond the shiny images of the proposed surgery and the biased reporting of the West Sussex County Times, realised that this fight was not about healthcare (that was the smokescreen for building where we shouldn’t be building) but actually about hipocrisy, greed and feudal-like behaviour of land owners.
Rosemary, a local lady called, wrote this poem back in 1990 when she started to see the real changes happening in Storrington. She’d witnessed the mass development of the Horemare Estate in the early 1980s and it certainly didn’t stop there.
She’s now a pensioner and has lived here all her life. It’s never been published anywhere. She has kindly donated it to SPANGLE and has said she is happy for us to put it onto our website if we like it. She very much appreciates all that SPANGLE has done.
Goodbye goodbye to Storrington
for Storrington’s nearly gone
Choked by mindless building
let endlessly go on
Goodbye goodbye to the meadows
The Glebe where we use to play
and meandering brook at Cootham
Where have they gone today
We bade farewell to our village
a very long time ago
and now these freshened memories
even they must go
They say it’s the way to progress
for those content to see
bricks instead of beauty
Lost tranquility
But if this is the future
for the children of today
fighting for existence
immersed in bricks and clay
Remember green of childhood
replaced by soulless grey
The wealth we take for granted
squandered by life today
So leave us with our memories
of the world we used to know
That our children may inherit
the village we loved so.
Rosemary, Sept 1990, Storrington resident
