The history of Brickfields Country Park - Comments on the building works by Alan Harding page 3

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Three seats[1] were constructed along the high bank immediately south of Chrismas Lodge, i.e. the north end of the park. These overlook the whole of the park and pond and provide a view to the south in the direction of Waverley[2]. The seats were constructed of large granite kerb stones which had lain on the filled pond for several years. Two sets of steps were built one leading down to the north–west of the pond and the other from top to bottom of the high bank as mentioned. These steps were of granite kerb-stones as were the surrounds to the islands and parts of the head–walls.
Tracks around the park and pond were made or improved somewhat but were generally left "natural". Later some were improved greatly to be gravel paths rather than tracks. A vast amount of earth moving was carried out, including the creation of three other (smaller) bund's, these were intended as features and had no other function, although some debris was buried under them[3]. Some grass-seeding of leveled areas was carried out and many spring-flowering bulbs were planted in several areas.
A lot of work was done to provide the car–park for Brickfields Country Park and a notice in that car park announced the fact that the whole project was a joint undertaking of Rushmoor Borough Council and The Manpower Services Commission who provided most of the labour (mostly youngsters who were out of work) and they did a splendid job. One of these men, thought to be a carpenter by trade, turned out to be an excellent supervisor and was a great asset to the job and a fine example to all.
A competition was held to decide on a name for this new park: it was won by a lady, and, later, a brick and tile tablet was erected in the car park[4], bearing the words, "Brickfields Country Park".

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These seats were made from very large and heavy Granite kerbstones that had been dumped in the then tip by the Borough Council during the intervening years when they in their wisdom had decided to replace all the Granite kerbstones in Aldershot town centre with concrete. One persons loss is anothers gain, so these kerbstones, in their hundreds, were used in several places in the park to construct the pond islands, form fights of steps, seating and ground retention walls. More kerbstones are being found in the park all the time and in recent years they have been used to construct a new flights of steps and to restrict small vehicle access from the Croft Lane entrance. [top]
This low lying Southern view towards Waverley, Compton and Seale has now been largely obscured in the intervening years by growth of the planted trees and scrub, major work would be needed to open up that view again, probably to the detriment of the woodland areas. [top]
Some years ago some enterprising youths had discovered some of this "debris" and dug out and then transported across the central grassed area a large block of concrete weighting we think close to half a ton. How they accomplished this is not known but we subsequently broke it up and used it to infill the stone feature mentioned in note 1 of the previous page. [back] [top]
The car park originally had a central area with a large Hawthorn bush in it, fronted by the "Brickfields Country Park" plaque. Over time the plaque was repeatedly damaged by vehicles, and was rebuilt several times. Following a spate of concerted vandalism the plaque was rebuilt in a simpler form behind the car park fence line as many of the original bricks had been lost. [back] [top]