Located at the end of Crystal Way / Amethyst Grove in Waterlooville, this is the ‘Play Park That Time Forgot’.
Originally constructed in the 1980’s, the park had a number of features including swings and wooden horses.
The only maintenance this park gets is an annual hedge trim from Havant Borough Council (and they do a neat job it has to be said).
The park park is a breeding ground for lichen. Wouldn’t it be great if this land was put to positive use?
Our thoughts,
- Reinstate it to it’s original purpose – a play park!
- A small allotment for local residents
- Return it to nature, encourage wild flowers and biodiversity
So we’ve got our hands full right now with a bunch of things already, if anyone out there wants to take this further … go for it.
If you want to visit this park, you’ll find it between Crystal Way and Amethyst Grove.
This is really sad, I spent so much of my childhood at this park. It would be lovely if it was a play park again.
Hi Becki – that is very cool :) What can you tell us about it?
I live in Crystal Way too and have a 3 year old boy who would love to have a park ‘in his street’. However, returning it to nature is also quite a nice idea.
I moved to 1 Riverdale Ave in 1981, with my family. We were the first occupied house of this estate. My younger brother and I were allowed to cycle to the park under the subway, at the back of Lysander Way until this park opened.I would say it was about 1986 that this park did open. It had 2 wooden horses from memory, a running drum and the swings. It was never a bustling park but it was a nice safe place to hang out. They never built a park on the Riverdale estate so this was the closest for us. It is sad that private housing estates lack spaces for children to play. Not convinced an allotment is the answer but leaving the space to rot is just ridiculous.
Jamie Moran;)
This park is two doors down from my house. Crystal Way is a very nice and quiet road – surely something like an allotment or ‘returning it to nature’ would be ideal as opposed to a play park. Although having said that there are quite a few families around here… Either way anything has got to be better than it’s current use.
I have lived on Tempest Avenue for 23 years and had my first child 14 years ago. I knew that there were a number of little parks dotted around the estate including this one and one just up from the subway. The day i took my daughter out to try out the swings for the first time i found they had all gone. Around the same time a friend was setting up a petition for a park on the estate so i joined a committee to raise money to get one. HBC had found it too expensive to keep up these little parks and were happier to provide a central one if the residents helped to fundraise. The rest is history and we got a fabulous park which is still very popular albeit slightly vandalised, sadly. So i don’t think that little patch will be played in again but as you say it could do with smartening up.
I never knew this was there
Community allotment or sensory garden. No more parks. There are enough if them for children in waterlooville and some are massive. Let’s have something that everyone if all ages can enjoy!
Developers had to put in facilities when building new houses, but up keep not thought about!!
I lived in crystal way , (lovely road ) and my son used to love this park. It had wooden donkeys to climb on and the two swings…it was perfect for a toddler. .. spent many happy hours in there . He is 18 now ! . Shame the park has been left empty.. hope they do not squeeze another house into the plot…
Michelle Edwards
I think a sensory garden sounds a good idea for this place :) x
I loved that park and the pink elephant park under the subway lol
Mark Humphrey Matt Roach Jamie Roach
Pink elephant park! :)
Emily-louise Dunstan. Please tell me you remember this as much as I do!
Kat it’s a bit spooky that you know this! Did you live close by?
Jackie Purdue, Charlotte Corp, Jemma Louise Shearing, Alison Cross, Elliott Terry, Russ Matthews, Lucie Sabiston
Sensory garden with a duck pond
No ball games sign is nice and new, well done to the council.
I am 34 now, and played in that park when i was young. Even i remember the donkeys. The council never took care of it then either…
Hi we live in the house next door. Another of our neighbours was in contact with the council over it a couple of years ago for either a park or garden but were told it is 1m too small and has no road access for them to consider using it. They then wrote to us to offer to sell it with us covering all their fee’s as they don’t wish to continue the upkeep of it! I think the only way to get it reused would be funding it on our own!
I have an update on this story : https://www.facebook.com/waterlooville.uk/posts/693226594130293