Naming our shared spaces

There is a video version of this blog if you prefer that.

Hunts Grove has a range of play areas and green space, with more to come as well as allotments and playing fields.

But at the moment, we don’t have names for these spaces apart from the historic Hunts Grove Wood, and perhaps Acorn Park. What should we all call the main Public Open Space? (Surely we don’t want to be calling it the “main Public Open Space” forever!)

What about the area down the side of the school and the ponds and woods there. Or the area around that path as it heads down to the Bund. Or the area with the gazebo and play area behind Bellway. “The bit behind Bellway” is a rubbish name for an area!

The Parish Council is launching a project to name our shared spaces.

Names are important. We think naming our spaces will:

  1. Make it easier to navigate around and meet up in these spaces. As one example, it was much easier to say where the Coronation music festival was being held than last year’s Teddy Bears’ picnic was.
  2. Having shared names for shared spaces helps build a sense of community. We want to be “One Hunts Grove” not a collection of phases or of areas built by different developers.
  3. Names help create and reflect identity and history. Other communities nearby have names for their spaces. Quedgeley has Green Farm Orchard and Fishers Meadow. Kingsway has St Mawgan Copse and the Prestwich Wetlands. Tuffley has Randwick Park. As a new build village we have an opportunity to choose this part of our identity and our history.

The plan

The plan is to work with the school to name play areas and to work as a wider community to name the rest.

To start with:

  • Tell us if there are names you are already using
  • Let us know if you’d be interested in joining the working group that will help run the project
  • Share any ideas you have that can help make the project a success.

Use this form to get in contact. Or email kevin.thorne@huntsgrove-pc.gov.uk.

Later we will:

  • Ask what themes you think the names should draw on. That might be the natural environment around the village, or the history of the site before the village was built. Or other things.
  • Ask you to suggest names
  • Work together as a community to choose the names we want to use.