15 Sandy Lane remodelled

Things have clearly changed at 15 Sandy Lane and not necessarily for the better. The house is a bigger, e.g. the garage has been included in to the main house, but it is also much blander, e.g. the terracotta tiles in the bay between the two windows have been removed.

There are a few little details there, e.g. in the small panes at the top of the windows, but these are lost in the uniformity of the painted front. I expect the porch to be painted too, it needs to be.

Leaning tree

While I usually try and mix which part of Ham I post pictures of I have collected several of Sandy Lane so I thought that I would post them as an end-to-end theme, starting with the Petersham Road end in the east.

This young tree has been forced to lean by the strong winds battering it and it does not have any support to help it. It will be fine though it looks a little odd against the vertical lines behind it.

LB23 GVT

HY56 YMW

Gold plaques

Several of the plants in Parkleys have been given memorial gold plaques for former residents. 

New entrance to Ham Close

Work on the surface areas of the new Ham Close development is in its final stages and one of the things that has been completed is the new entrance from Woodville Road, complete with white and yellow lines.

Reduced pond

When I posted a picture of this pond in Ham Common Woods in spring 24 I commented on how unusually wet the area was but now the story is the exact opposite. As we start the first very hot spell of the year the pond has all but disappeared and I had to get quite close to it to be sure that there was any of it left.

Unusual porch

Ham has several large areas of similar looking brick houses built for social housing and over the years quite a few of these have added porches and most of these have followed the style of the having a brick construction and a sloping roof with terracotta tiles. This one in Lammas Road has taken a very different approach and looks horribly out of keeping as a result.

Missing cap

The simple wood boards have gone from the front of Beaufort House but the wall behind them looks to be unaltered. What has gone is the cap on the pillar on the left. That pillar has been built up to the height of the rest of the wall but this work looks messy and may be unfinished. It would be nice to get the other cap back.