Another sign you’re growing old is that you find yourself uttering the statement above. It was this thought that led me to do a Top Ten Fields Songs on Snapshots this week.
How many times do you drive down a country lane you’ve known all your life only to find that a new housing development has erupted like a zit where once there were only fields? Urban sprawl seems to be happening more and more these days, and areas I always assumed were green belt are being swallowed by hideous new identikit homes. Charmless, characterless, spaceless (modern houses are always built too close together to maximise profits) homogeneous blights on the landscape. Monstrous carbuncles, as Prince Charles had it. I must be getting old if I’m agreeing with Charlie.
Over the past ten years, I’ve lived in two such developments. The first time, we lasted 18 months. The second time, just over a year. In each case, the house in question was less than five years old; in both cases, we weren’t the first owner. So many people are tempted by shiny new things, only to discover the utter lack of soul makes them stultifying. I’d rather live in an old house that needs work but wasn’t built with the soul motivation of maximising profit for the builders. Also, the idea that new houses don’t need work is a myth, since they’re often so badly built – with costs cut at every available opportunity – that they start falling apart the second an owner moves in… and sometimes even before that.
But maybe you don’t have to be getting on in years to feel regret over new developments. I took Sam swimming last week and as we were sitting in the car park, we stared across the road to where JCBs were tearing up another field. “Why are they building houses there?” Sam asked me. “It’s spoiling the view!”
John Gorka knows whereof I speak…
They're growing houses in the fields between the towns
And the Starlight drive-in movie's closing down
The road is gone to the way it was before
And the spaces won't be spaces anymore
I guess no one should be afraid of change
But tell me why is there a fence for every open range
It's a sign I'm getting on in years
When nothing new is welcome to these eyes and ears
