The Entrance To The Arbo

A Memory of Walsall.

I was brought up in the Chuckery and so my friends and I regarded the Arboretum as our personal back yard and "'m going down the Arbo" was the usual refrain shouted to my mother in the school holidays. We usually entered the park by way of The Broadway but I always thought that the gates in the picture were particularly elegant and a wonderful entrance into this land where one could play on the swings, jump brooks, tease Park Keepers and generally keep ourselves amused for hours and days. The building to the right must be the Melba Cafe which I thought had been demolished a little before this picture was taken. There was a huge picture of a boy with a gleeful smile holding out an ice cream to tempt passers by. I believe that the Melba later developed a darker reputation as a night time haunt of 'Rockers'. To me though the eye is always drawn to the gates of The Arboretum. I left Walsall in 1967 but continued to work in the town until moving to Italy where I have long been a resident (with an Italianised name to boot!). In August this year (2010) I paid a rare visit to England and one day we had to drive along The Broadway. My wife was driving so I was able to look down into the 'new part' of the Arboretum. It was a beautiful August day in the middle of the school holiday and I did not see one single person in the park. Rather a sad indictment of our times.