My Home City - Reflections on my early years in Plymouth 12

 Old Town Street - Plymouth by Rev’d Paul Collings 

With the ever expanding three cities, planners in the 1700s named one part of the town as Old Town to differentiate it from the new build; eventually this thoroughfare became known as Old Town Street with it’s market centre, Renowned architect Sir Patrick Abercrombie published his Plan for Plymouth in 1943, which cleared the city of buildings that survived the World War Two blitz. The vision was for a radically different, modern city with boulevard-style central roads running east to west, linked by a striking north to south avenue, Armada Way, connecting North Road railway station and the Hoe.

All that now remains of the original street is it’s name.

Isaiah 58:12 You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community liveable again.

I still recall the crashing walls

As there swung harsh, the wrecking ball

That tore the fabric of that street

Into an mound, a rubbled heap.

Whilst damage done by falling bombs

Had given way to peaceful balm,

Rebuilding hope was now the scheme

Yet banished sight of former dreams.

Today, as folk walk ‘long that way,

I wonder if their mind would stay

A moment pause and there to feel

The former life, histry’s reveal.

Progressions tireless rush to find

The new, the novel leaves behind

The memory of the why and how,

The past has made today, the now.

Lord, in my lifetime have I thought

Of those who travelled, those who sought

To build on ground for future days

That I might too new living raise.

Or do I cast such thoughts aside

And elders efforts shun, deride.

Help me to value former times

And with my own to build entwine.

Help me to realise in your hands

All human effort fuse and stands,

Connected by a living chain

That no one’s living is in vain.

“Sometimes we can’t be present to the possibilities of our future until we navigate a peaceful path through the aftermath of our past.” 

― Curtis Tyrone Jones