Trifter

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Northampton (England) is a nice place to live. It has a long and interesting history and it became well known for it’s footwear and leather industry. It is not all about history, the town has moved with the times and it is a busy and friendly place to live. I really didn’t know that I felt so protective about my home until I saw what the makers of the Monopoly game had done to it. The thing that annoyed me most was what they chose as the bargain basement type properties. They included the National Lift Tower and Abington Park. The 127 metres high lift tower is a listed building, it was built as a lift testing tower in 1982, but unfortunately the company that owned it closed in 1997. Since that time the building has been under threat of demolition several times, but thanks in part to to the support of local people the tower has survived. It is affectionately known as the Northampton Lighthouse, a bit of a joke since we are a long way from the sea. It does look a lot like a lighthouse and when we see it we know we are not far from home. It is not a bargain basement building, it is a much loved landmark.

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Abington Park is one of the jewels of our town. When it opened in 1897 it was the first public park in our town. The park is in two parts divided by a tree lined avenue. The upper park contains the old manor house which is now a museum, parts of the building date back to Tudor times. There are also two thatched farmer’s cottages and a Victorian bandstand in the upper park and the Church of St Peter and St Paul nestles close to the manor house. The lower park contains a pigeon loft and water tower which date back to 1774 and the pillars of hunting gates from the old estate parkland can also be found in the park. The casual visitor may not be aware that the lumps and bumps in the ground close to the rose garden and children’s play area are evidence of a disused medieval village and of the ridge and furrow system of farming. The park is not only beautiful it is bursting with history, it should have pride of place on the Monopoly board, not a bargain basement slot.

In the original version based on London there are four railway stations, but there is only one station in our town, so they used Greyfriars bus station, the Grand Union Canal and the River Nene (pronounced Nen) to make up a set of four landmarks. If they are looking for a bargain basement building they need to look no further than the bus station. It has been crying out for demolition ever since it was built in 1970’s. It is cold ugly, unsafe, inconvenient and generally unfit for purpose, so why on earth is that valued higher than many wonderful buildings!

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One of the buildings on the board valued at only half the cost of the bus station is the Church of The Holy Sepulchre known locally as Seps Church. It dates to 11AD and it is one of only four churches in England with a round nave. It was built as an exact copy of the church in Jerusalem by Simon de Senlis to commemorate his safe return from the first crusade. The church is loved by the people of the town both because of it’s place in history and for it’s beauty. Generations of our ancestors have marked the highs and lows of their lives within it’s walls, and it has stood for all these years as a constant witness to the Christian faith. I think it was in bad taste to include a church on the Monopoly board, you don’t buy and sell religious buildings and you don’t reduce religious faith to a monetary value.

I know the game is just an innocent bit of fun, and I believe it is selling very well, but I have a message for the makers of the game. When they next turn a town into a game of Monopoly they should take more care because people have strong feelings about their town or city.