Park of the week

163. Windmill Park

Hidden away in Bushey Heath, this park offers play, relaxation, and large oak trees. I found it by looking at a map. There’s no car park, so we parked on the road. We were going through some very difficult stuff at home at the time, but as we walked from the car to the park, I felt a sense of peace. I don’t know why. These things happen to me. For example, shortly after the General Election, I couldn’t shake the sensation that Keir Starmer was sitting in the row in front of us at a Friday night service, despite there being nobody in that row.

Anyway – Windmill Park, also known as Windmill Recreation Ground, is a pleasant space. It has mature trees, open grassland, shrubs, a seasonal pond, basketball court, picnic benches and a play area. There is no cafe or toilets. It has allotments on both sides.

This board, in the play area, must have been put up before August 2006, when Pluto was demoted to a dwarf planet.

When writing these posts, I like to do a bit of research so that I can include more than just “felt a sense of peace”. There doesn’t seem to be that much about the park, but there used to be a real windmill close by. It was built in the early nineteenth century and demolished in 1910. However, among the many, many search results about property for sale, and nearby restaurants, I found one from 1998 about a Rabbi Jonathan Black, who with his family lived in a house they’d had built underground in their own garden, in Windmill Street, the next street to the park. I don’t know if it’s still there, but it’s not visible (to me, anyway) on Google Earth. But then, it wouldn’t be, would it?  

Judith Field

Windmill Park, Windmill Lane, Bushey WD23 1PE