Recreation In Perpetutity For Everyone (1 October 1976)

August 7, 1899, was a red-letter day in the annals of Fenny Stratford, for it saw the opening of the Leon Recreation Ground to the public “in perpetuity for ever.”

A crowd estimated at over 4,000 turned up for the event – a remarkable figure considering that the population of the Fenny urban council’s area, which included Bletchley and Simpson, but not Water Eaton, could barely have exceeded 4,500.  Today’s equivalent would be a crowd of about 30,000.  Imagine that!

Probably the main attraction was the afternoon of sports which preceded the opening ceremony and for which there were more than 300 entries.

It was an interesting scene in more ways than one.  Hitherto the land had been part of the Bletchley Rectory glebe.  It seems to have been bare from near the present Queensway right down to the Water Eaton Brook apart from a possible hedge along the line of the present Eaton Avenue.  Bletchley Council’s guide-book for 1922 described it as being in the middle of the town.  But in 1899 it was only on the fringe of old Fenny’s development.

Except for the schools, which had been built in the same decade, there was hardly a building in the near vicinity.   The land was traversed, however, by not-unimportant footpaths.

First hint of something in the wind came to the public’s ears in March, 1896, when the one-year-old Fenny council minuted that Mr H S Leon (later Sir Herbert Leon, of Bletchley Park) had offered to provide half the cost of a piece of land suitable for a recreation ground.  A committee was formed to deal with the question.

Then, in July the same year, the council clerk referred to negotiations with the Bletchley Rector, the Rev William Bennitt, about “a field on the Bletchley Road,” but Mr Bennitt said he must first obtain the permission of the patron of the living before he could negotiate.  The clerk was instructed to communicate with the patron.

There is no further mention until February 1989, but in the meantime Mr Bennitt had evidently stepped in and bought the land himself, for at that meeting the clerk reported having received a deed of gift from Mr Leon’s solicitors.

Made on January 28, 1898, the indenture states that Mr Leon grants to the council “all that piece of land .  . . containing by admeasurement nine acres, two roods and 23 perches, or thereabouts . . . together with the pathway leading thereto from the Bletchley road, and to hold the said premises unto and for the use of the council for ever, for the purpose of a public recreation ground.”

In addition to the land designated for a public recreation ground, Mr Leon had bought the land now represented by Eaton Avenue, Leon Avenue and Lennox Road.  He had the roads made, had building plots laid out and called it the Leon Estate, but some of the plots were still vacant in the 1920s.

The council spent the 18 months following the gift on raising £235 by public subscription, levelling and laying-out the ground and generally making it presentable.

They also erected a bandstand, for it was on this that the opening ceremony took place.  Cheers greeted Mr and Mrs Leon as they mounted the platform.

Mr Leon said he was stimulated by the vastness of the company and their appreciation of the sports.  He told the youngsters they must now cease trespassing in fields and gardens, thereby hinting they could no longer say there was nowhere to go and nothing to do in Fenny Stratford.  Finally, he begged to declare the ground “open to the public in perpetuity for ever.”

At one time the ground was very popular.  Bands played in the bandstand and football was played despite a footpath running across the pitch.

When Central Gardens (which could be locked up at dusk) were opened, they became a more popular place for many, leaving the Leon Rec and its suitably-placed trees to be little more than a place for walking the dog.

I see the authorities are now wondering what to do about the 77-year-old “Rec” under the Fenny redevelopment scheme.  Well, Central Gardens have now disappeared under the Leisure Centre complex and it would seem a good time to introduce a gardens element at the “Rec” instead.