The Park and Fleet village
Fleet, a renowned beauty spot with its pleasant surroundings and Fleet pond was home to James Oakley a wealthy landowner and businessman. He owned a shop in the village near to the junction of Fleet Road and Upper Street. In today's terms, the shop would have been classified as a large departmental store, being over 100 feet wide and 60 feet deep, the store sold everything, from groceries, bicycles, clothing, fabric to furniture and even incorporated an off-licence and a funeral parlor. Upon his death in 1920, he bequeathed the land known as Oakley Park to the community. The park is held in trust by the council for the benefit and enjoyment of the local community and cannot be used for any other purpose than its present use. Surrounded on all sides by residential housing and covering approximately nine acres, the park consists of two distinct areas.
The larger area is mostly grassland, with a full size football pitch, clubhouse and children's facilities surrounded by pathways and streams.Being level,it is ideal for everyone from young children to the elderly and disabled. Three acres has been conserved as a woodland and wildlife sanctuary. There is a small commemorative garden and plaque to James Oakley at the entrance from Albany road.The park has easy access and parking in the surrounding area is available but with some roadside restrictions.
Oakley Park and its Friends - The first ten years
Memoirs of Stewart Knowles, Chairman of The Friends of Oakley Park, 1991-99, Reproduced here from a booklet published in 1999
There are moments, dew and sun-soaked mornings, when I can scarce believe it. Oakley Park is at it's shining best. There is little or no litter to be seen, no morning-after signs of evening drinking sessions by the 'homework? What homework?' brigade. Trees planted yesterday (or so it seems) are strong and tall. The grass is Ireland-green; even patches made bare by the studs of football boots have been re-seeded and this freshly-laid colour-soaked carpet fairly glows. I remember, though vaguely now, what it was like ten years ago. A dump? Too merciful a word. It was an eyesore. And the adjoining woodland was to many a no-go area which featured an unsavory ditch that once, rumor claimed, has been a pond.
Big Changes
The park's transformation started with an announcement in the local papers. A public meeting, it proclaimed, would be held one Autumn evening in 1989 to discuss the possibility of improving Oakley Park. By that time the park, everyone acknowledged, was hopelessly run down and so something had to be done. To the surprise of many the public meeting was well attended. Close on 100 people came to the Catholic Church Hall in Connaught Road where Ann Hollis, then living in Fleet, outlined the idea for 'The Friends of Oakley Park' to be formed. At a meeting held in the home of Nick Heath, on Monday September 16th 1989, Ann became the 'Friends' first chairman with Sharon Clucas and Nevenka Thornton, respectively, secretary and treasurer. Serving with them on that first committee were Sue Abbot, Tess Reid, Nick Heath, Vic Makepeace and me, my wife having suggested, at that first public meeting, that I volunteer. One of the committee's first decisions was to have an 'Action Day' on Sunday, October 15th 1989 to clean the park of rubbish.
The first £100
Within a year our treasurer - Nevenka Thornton - was able to report a bank balance of £100 from subscriptions. We had bought and provided a picnic bench for the park and held our first cheese and wine evening which made a profit of £120. At our first AGM - on October 8th 1990 - Ann Hollins announced she was moving with her family to Winchfield and Nevenka took over as chairman with Chris Wiltshire replacing her as treasurer. By now the committee was discussing any number of issues that ranged from litter and dog mess to an idea for a cricket match against a similar group being formed at Basingbourne. The match has yet to take place! Our second AGM - on October 2nd 1991 - was something of a disaster. We had booked the United Reformed Church Hall only to discover, at the last minute, that alcohol was not allowed and the resulting attendance was pitiful. Even so, we had grown in strength with an active committee of nine members. After serving a year as chairman Nevenka opted to stand down to become secretary. I took over as chairman and by this time an idea that started life as a mere gleam - to restore the pond - was really taking shape. We had launched a quarterly Newsletter by now and in 1992 the spring edition was able to report: 'Well we made it. With a lot of help from our friends we have given Oakley Park its pond back after many, many years of neglect'.
Heavy Duty
With the help of a party of Royal Engineers from Gibraltar Barracks, Minley, work on ground clearance had started that January and in February two men with a small mechanical digger spent three days digging out what would become the restored pond. On July 18th we held a garden party to mark the 'official reopening' and drank Bucks Fizz with a special guest, Richard Watkinson, then 82, the grandson of James Oakley who gave the land to people of Fleet in 1920. We have since placed a plaque to his memory in the shrubbery at the park's Albany Road entrance, something else we were able to create. Three years after we re-created the pond we decided to extend it slightly. The plan, suggested and supervised by Joe Mullen, was to remove one boggy area and incorporate a ditch that was separate from the main body of water. Without the aid of mechanical equipment some 20 volunteers pitched in and on Sunday October 29th 1995, the job was done and the pond even had its own drainage system. It would be fair to say that in terms of achievement, the re-creation and extension of the pond, was our high water mark. Once, long ago (or so it is said) the original pond was used by monks as a fish store. Perhaps the heron that drops in occasionally has heard the same stories. We have grown and grown. At the combined cheese and wine evening and AGM in 1997 our membership stood at 200 and hasn't stopped there. Thousands of daffodils, planted by volunteers each year, make the park a spring time delight and more recently crocuses have been added.
Recognition
In October 1998, we received a Special Mention in the Queen Mother's Birthday Awards organized by the Tidy Britain group. The citation gave something of our history and objectives and ended with the words: 'The work undertaken by this group has greatly enhanced this popular park and created a good sense of community spirit. It acknowledged, as well, the excellent working relationship we have established with Hart District Council, the local authority responsible for normal maintenance.
Further back
And now, as we face a new Millennium, perhaps a look back to a more distant past might be appropriate. Research undertaken by Chris Hall, our local naturalist and good friend, found that in 1870, on a map of Fleet, the Oakley area was still heathland with a scattering of pine trees and a stream leading to Fleet Pond. The land belonged to a Mr. Thomas Keep, who had owned it since 1840. It was sold by public auction in June 1878 for £4,750. The block of land was 248 acres and included everything bounded by Fleet Road, Reading Road, the canal and Pondtail. It was described at the time as being 'an unbroken stretch of heathland, little more than a bog where frogs croaked night and day'. This would have been the now very rare natterjack toad which survived in Fleet until at least 1922. More of the past emerged a few years ago when we met an elderly Fleet resident, Stanley Shrimpton, who had played in the woods of Oakley Park as a child. Stanley was, in fact, the grandson of William Shrimpton who had bought the land in the 1880s before much of the surrounding area was developed. The family at the time owned four acres of land backing onto Kings Road that now forms part of the woodland walk, an attractive popular feature of the park which it now adjoins.
Apples and tennis
The woods once contained two orchards and a tennis court and the pond even had a small boat on it. We have the photographs to prove it! Stanley Shrimpton was able to tell us how he and his two sisters spent long summer days at 'Crevetton', the house his grandfather built which stands to this day as number 66, Kings Road. Initially it had been bought as a weekend retreat though the family did, eventually, move there permanently. 'During the First World War,' Mr. Shrimpton recalled, 'we spent a month there every summer. I remember fishing for crayfish in the canal by Pondtail Bridge and playing for hours in the Oakley Woods my family then owned. 'It was my father, Ebeneezer Shrimpton who established the tennis court in the grounds and had the small boat on the pond. In those days there were fish in it but I don't think I ever caught any. When my father tried to make a swimming pool the men digging it hit a spring and that might have explained why the pond never dried out. I can remember the island in the middle of the pond had a wonderful smell of wild sage and pine needles.' The Shrimpton family sold the land in 1947 and it remained in private ownership until 1972 when Hart District Council purchased it for the sum of £195,000. By then George Road has been built by Eden Developments and George Eden's application to buy the woodland 'to the rear of 66' Kings Road' has been refused by the council who, thus, became obliged to buy it. The park itself, as I stated earlier, had been donated in 1920 by Mr. James Oakley who had owned Fleet's first department store, now Old Emporium public house on the corner of Upper Street and Fleet Road. His act of generosity was a thanksgiving for the signing of the peace treaty at the end of the 1914-1918 war. An extract from the Deed of Gift, the original of which is still held by the council, reads: 'Unto and to the use of the council in fee simple to be used for ever hereafter as a public park and recreation ground for the inhabitants of Fleet and neighborhood thereof and the public generally under the control and management of the council dated 25th February, 1920.
And now?
So here we are, eight years later and a New Millennium upon us. We'd like to think James Oakley would be happy with the way we have tried to care for and nurture his gift. Shrubbery's, benches, picnic tables, play facilities for younger users of the park, including a basketball ring, are all, directly or indirectly, the result of our efforts and our partnership with Hart District Council. The woodland area, now an established part of the park itself, is a pleasant place in which to stroll or give the family dog some exercise. Paths have been greatly improved as part of an ongoing local authority plan and regular cleanups by our volunteers help to keep it relatively free of litter. We seem to be regarded by the local Press as a good news source and this has been maintained, to a great extend, by a series of regular activities throughout the year. The annual bring and buy coffee morning in May is very successful and now well established feature and we have managed to stage a variety of 'happenings' - a Teddy Bears' Picnic, an Easter Egg Treasure Hunt and a Keep Fit in the Park hour, for example that keeps us in the public eye. With housing needs making increasing demands on land, Oakley Park and Woodland is an oasis and, in the 21st Century, the Friends of Oakley Park see themselves, if the idea is not too pretentious, both as its patron and its protector.
The work does not end here. Stewart Knowles Chairman 1991 - 99
The Present
Since 1999 many things have changed. Continuing the work started so many years ago. We now have a club house for storing the football equipment which was recently upgraded with new windows and doors. Repainted and the roof repaired. In 2002 the pond was re-dredged and made slightly larger. A bridge across the stream for the football team to use was installed and the children's swings were completly revamped. A Lovely area for the smaller children, full of the latest swings and climbing frames. The recently installed climbing rocks and a replacement kickboard have added to the facilities the park offers the older children and teenagers. The park area is a pleasing place to spend some time during the hot summer months and thanks to the councils efforts it is well maintained but there is still much to do and many challenges to face.
