Many years ago between 35 & 45 years to be exact my dad introduced me to a place which, in my family was called the woods, but was in fact Banstead Downs in Belmont.  It was a place I loved for all my childhood.

It was of very chalky soil with all sorts of trees and plants growing, especially wild Bluebells and silver birch and holly trees all of which were very rare there in 1990.  The downs used to spread from Belmont station all the way passed the totally un-pc name of Banstead Lunatic Asylum, later turned into a prison for mentally ill offenders.

As a child I was never concerned about the patients or even the prison inmates, even though there were often reports of escapees!  and I met a few of the patients on my travels around the wood.  I knew every step of the downs like the back of my hand, and felt completely safe under the watchful eyes of the fleeting glimpses of the Faeries.  I would run away from my dad and play in the trees and when I wanted to find him it was easy, even though the downs were huge.

As an adult myself, I took my own children there after a 14 year absence.  We drove there and parked in the same place my dad used to park. Instead of the old cafe that had been there all those years before there was a row of houses, with back Gardens going back on to the beginning of the downs.  Although it was the Spring, there were no beds of bluebells, we walked and instead of feeling free and easy as it used to with the feeling of friendly eyes.  I was filled with trepidation. The amount of green space and trees had diminished drastically.  We got to the top of a chalk hill and found an obvious circle that had been used the night before with remainder of a bonfire, now I’m obviously not one to be scared of witches, however this did not feel like a normal witches circle.   Instead of a warm and happy place I was filled with horrors and felt chased from the downs by fleeting figures, which were obviously not the friendly Faeries that had been there in my childhood.  There were many more homes built on what used to be wonderful ancient woodland, and even the hospital had changed names and had now been now re marketed into a building of very expensive, luxurious apartments.

A visit later next week will prove as to whether there has been a continuing of growing building on the woodlands or a reclaiming of the ancient grounds and indeed more trees planted.