Philip Drive
Northern Woods

White Gates Estate (as it was then called) under construction
Photo with thanks to the Nea family

Philip Drive today


Philip Drive, White Gates Estate,
Was built upon this field
Where horses from the stables grazed
Until its fate was sealed.
For when the war was over
They needed building plots
And Flackwell saw expansion
On all its favourite spots.
No longer ponds to play in,
No orchards full of fruit,
Allotments sold to builders
Then farmland followed suit.
The Flackwell they remembered
Was lost to yesteryear
So is it any wonder now
That folk still shed a tear?
So treasure what is left behind,
The woods, and footpaths too,
The fields that still surround us
And all our lovely views.
Don’t let such change defeat us,
It gets quite hard to bear
When asked that nagging question
‘I wonder what was there?’

This area was all farmland, possibly belonging to what was once Highfield Farm at the top of Juniper Lane (later Juniper Farm). It was built on in the 1950s and 1960s.
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