Letter: I Have Sympathy for the Residents and the Cathedral

Published on: 16 Feb, 2017
Updated on: 7 Feb, 2023

From Bernard Parke

Hon alderman and former mayor

To many of us in Guildford we regarded the cathedral as an emblem of a new age after the dark days of the war.

I was proud to be a young sixteen-year-old cathedral guide at that time and later to become one of the first stewards in 1961.

As a national serviceman I even managed to persuade my RAF station commander to allow me leave at the time of the Queen’s visit in 1957.

However, it is sad to witness that the building finds itself in dire straits in the 21st century, but I am not alone when I say that the further development on Stag Hill will do very little to enhance the quality of life of those who actually live there.

This development would have added a further 134 dwellings to the 160 planned for the nearby Guildford Park car park, in an area which frequently becomes heavily congested as a main route from the A3 into central Guildford.

I was once a resident of Ridgemount, and at that time many of our houses had to be underpinned due to the movement of clay surface of Stag Hill.

Further problems were experienced when Lynwood, the small estate of houses just below Ridgmount, was built in the 1960s on what was once a drainage area of the hill.

I have, therefore, sympathy for the present residents whose lives would have been blighted by further building work.

I also have great sympathy for the cathedral and the financial dilemma in which it is now in, but I am opposed to the further desecration of what in the early days called “a jewel in an emerald sea”.

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