The Friends of Freemantle Lake park were joined yesterday ( 9th October) for a very special morning of learning about local history. Martin Brisland, a local history tour guide for See Southampton and published writer, had agreed to research and delivery the tour totally free of charge to support the group and encourage the joy of history in the area.
It was a beautiful sunny morning as the large group met around the picnic benches, and the park was looking at its best. Martin began by talking about his own childhood memories of being brought to park on his lunch break and his family that lived in the area.
We walked up and out of the park and across to the Freemantle school and the church. We were given access to Christ Church, one of the oldest buildings in Freemantle, and shown the lovely painting of the lake, (now the park) in all its glory.
We then moved on to walk up to see where Frederic Fleet had lived. Frederic Fleet was the lookout on the Titanic and it was Fleet who first sighted the iceberg, proclaiming “iceberg right ahead!”
There were so many interesting points from the tour. It was a lovely glimpse of what the area has to offer and “pitched perfectly“ as one person commented on the Friends Facebook page.
We are already being asked when the next one is, so safe to say that this was a great success. Many thanks to Martin for his time.
Charlotte Ndupuechi
Photos by Gordon Duncan.
- In Common is not for profit. We rely on donations from readers to keep the site running. Could you help to support us for as little as 25p a week? Please help us to carry on offering independent grass roots media. Visit: https://www.patreon.com/incommonsoton
