I love my town, I love its Victorian past, I particularly love the very charming name given to a small though sweet little park we used to have in this town, it was called titty bottle park oh those Vicorians how they eloquently titled our little park
It was beautiful, created in the late eighteen hundreds it was triangular in shape, fitting between the sands and the grand Victorian houses it was a popular local place. It gave the nannies with their young charges a nice place to sit in the sunshine and the nannies would feed the babies with the bottles, hence the name
Inside the small park were beautiful flower beds in the shapes of the suits of a deck of cards and beautiful iron railing surrounding it with gates and seating. Opposite was the bandstand another beautiful ornate Victorian structure which regularly featured bands playing in the sunshine and with punch and judy shows in the gaily striped tiny tents, and fair ground rides on the beach well the town must have been a wonderful place for the new influx of people to settle
I say new because before the 1850's this little town was a fishing town and sleepily slipped through the years singing fishing ditties and hawling crab pots, then a nearby bigger town reached the industrial age and they built a train line joining us to them and that brought the prosperity and popularity.
Quickly becoming a victorian favourite on account of the the sea being extraordinarily good for ones health, they flocked here as happy families with bathing huts, smiles and an enthusiasm for our town that may well have not been matched by the towns dwellers at the time, it didn't take long though before a fully fledged candy floss and pickled eggs souvenir shops and sandcastles, seaside town emerged
The newcomers were quite well to do and the town gained some beautiful buildings and to my mind little gems like titty bottle park were the perfect idyllic finishing touch to a thriving town. I can imagine how the nannies would arrange to meet , chattering as they stroll by the sands watching the sea as their charges gained the precious fresh air which even to this day is capable of settling any child and always guarantees a good nights sleep
Rumour has it that the little park was so quaintly named by a comedian named Weary Willie, the town was considered a good draw for many entertainment acts and both music and comedy took place as well as many clubs that would take place on the beach, a sunday club for kids and puppet shows and many talent contests, there was costume events and floats for parades, a minor royal visited once and there are pictures somewhere of the town bedecked in bunting and it looked amazing; the small shops almost obscured by the flags of bunting there was so much!
Over the years both the seaside holiday town image and the fisher folk have more or less gone, traces of a past history can still be seen in some of the older cottages; a couple of them still have crab pots in the garden stacked high waiting to be mended, no trace of the wonderful attractions, they are now micropubs and infohubs, the memories are only in books and old photos, the town itself has expanded so much with housing it now joins the neighbouring towns, row upon row of houses, nowhere has a quaint name like titty bottle park with people relaxing in the sunshine listening to the band play, the importance of the local park to a town should always be appreciated, the more flowers the better!
thank you for reading
