One of the things that I like most about Ham is the way that paths thread through most of the developments making it easy to get around an exciting to explore. I deeply regret the few places where paths have been blocked and there are a few of these in Wates Estate.
I investigate the many collections of garages and several of these have exits that are not obvious until you get right into the parking area. I almost expect an exit to be there so it is something of a disappointment when there is not one. In this case it looks as though there used to be another way through but it has been blocked leaving its mark in a redder brick.
Update: See the comment below for the full story on this blocked door.
I got quite a shock when I looked at your blog post yesterday, as the photograph shows the side of our house, into which we moved a few months ago.
ReplyDeleteThe blocked 'door' is in fact part of our back garden wall. We were told that the previous owner of our house had wanted a side entrance to the back garden via the garage area shown (which does not belong to our group of houses - our garages are on the other side), and so they they knocked a hole in the wall.
Unfortunately, the company that owns that battery of garages objected to this, and so the door had to be blocked up again.
So that particular blocked exit only leads into our back garden...
However, the battery of garages which belongs to our houses - behind the wooded square we live on, set back from Kingfisher Drive - DOES have a blocked exit of the kind you describe. We were told it had been blocked because of anti-social behaviour by people using it as a short cut, including dropping a great deal of litter in the square.
Thanks for that information. I'll look for the other blocked exit next time I am in the area.
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