AS A child I spent most of my time living and playing close to Bewsey Old Hall, a beautiful old ivy-covered building surrounded by heavy woodland, farm buildings, ponds (where otters lived), fields full of cattle and abundant wildlife.

In fact, the whole area was a natural haven for wildlife.

No, I am not talking of 50 years ago but just 20 years ago, even though looking at the hall and its grounds today you would never believe it.

The outside of the hall has been stripped and boarded up, the ponds filled in and the woodland thinned out almost to the point of destruction.

The farm buildings have also been demolished, with the exception of one which has been turned into a pub.

Even though the Park Rangers are based at the hall, very little of the natural woodland and shrubbery are left and the natural riverbanks have been replaced with man-made footpaths, lawns and park benches.

Even the hall's moat, which features in many of the hall's mysteries and stories, has been filled in.

With all the wrangling about what to do with the hall and who should own it and where the money should come from, there is only one thing certain.

That is that something must be done - and done now - the restore what is left of Warrington's most valuable treasure to its natural beauty, not a cheap, modern replica of what it used to be.

E.E.

Sankey

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.