The Diggers Song Revisited
Tune: The Diggers' Song - Leon Rosselson
THE DIGGERS' SONG REVISITED
From 1859, they put up Round Hill,
Soon the Stanfords gave up farming,
William Ford sold Tower Mill...
Charles Cutress bought it, then more houses came,
By nineteen thirteen, Belton Road was not the same.
The mill gave way, to still more homes...
Its bricks were used in their construction -
simple building without domes -
So tightly packed those house-fronts are,
that there’s hardly any space to park your car.
But there are back gardens, and beyond some green,
this belonged to Primrose laundry
which kept Brighton’s linen clean,
Our drying fields still serve us well:
Wildlife habitat keeps us from urban Hell.
The sin of cramming, we do disdain,
We’ve had Carelet, Ashdown Road
and Richmond House time and again,
And now It’s Crescent Road to take the strain:
If it’s joined to Belton Road we’ll go insane.
Now the men of property, they make the call,
They are first to meet The Council
which exists to serve us all,
We pay our taxes for the public realm,
But the men who buy our fields are at the helm.
From those men of property, the proposal came,
Few had time to understand it,
it was processed just the same...
Poor plans concealed their true intent,
And they hoped that few objections would be sent.
Residents take courage, planners please take care,
The public realm provides the set—ting
for decent homes to share,
Not for city cramming, not for private gain.
Nor for park—ing on our pavements once again.
The meeting came, the agenda great
We waited 6 hours to discover
They would vote with no debate
Untidy drawings weren’t understood
Some members still said the design was very good.