You’d think that as villages are part of the rural landscape, if residents wanted to commune with nature it could just be a case of going out into your garden and sniffing the fresh air or wandering about on the perimeter of farmers’ fields…
In Littleport we have the river bank too.
Now ‘community gardens’ proliferate in urban areas. Necessary havens, in the concrete metropolises, that mimic the countryside idyll of popular imagination.
But perhaps befitting of its expanding housing, with road-making and asphalting going on apace, Littleport now has a community garden of its own.
Named by popular vote, Peacock’s Meadow - Woodland Garden, it was a good-sized bit of spare land between the back of some houses in Parsons Lane, bounded by Upton Place, Limes Close, and some of the new houses on the Highfields development.
Lots of us who came to Littleport from towns, are already au fait with this public garden concept. Like Deborah Curtis Watson of the ‘Friends of the Woodland Garden’ committee, who says, “We have had funding from the ECDC and Sanctuary HA to make the space user friendly and accessible for those disabled.”
Littleport Lions club members have often turned out to assist.
This Saturday October 14, a digger and other equipment will arrive there, but the Peacock’s Meadow group are short of helpers to do some of the heavier work of shifting the gravel on to paths. There are plenty of volunteers for tea and lunch making, so if you turn up you won’t go thirsty or hungry!
If you can help out, entry is at the top of Limes Close that leads off Parsons Lane.
A more traditionally rural aspect of Littleport is its chicken keeping.
Lots of people enjoy looking after chickens, even though there are some that go a-wandering from time to time. Mostly these are stories with happy endings, but not for Nikki and her young son Finley. After searching in nearby fields, with Finley calling her name, Chikaletta, it seems that this chicken has sadly disappeared never to return to the coop she shared with two others.
Cycling is still a fairly safe option for those who can pedal one, around Littleport’s pleasant roadways. There’s a new and second hand YPL Cycle Shop, located upstairs in Phil Malkin’s YPL Auction house, in Henry Crabbe Road. They do repairs too. (01353 864611)
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