The magic of St Giles Hill

It seems everyone who comes to St Giles Hill Park has their own reasons to love the place; here are mine.

It was a swelteringly hot summer's day in 1976 when I set off on my first bike ride without stabiliser wheels in St Giles Hill Park: a wobbly journey downhill along the eastern edge of the Park that lasted less than 30 seconds and ended with scraped knees.

St Giles Hill has been the setting for so many childhood memories for people across Winchester and beyond. As a ten year-old, my friends and I spent hundreds of hours building forts and playing on the Park's slopes and terraces, which were transformed in our imaginations into a secret kingdom of forests and castles.

As a teenager, I probably sulked a few times sitting on the benches, gazing out over the city, dreaming of escape to a larger life in a larger world. Years later, after I'd escaped and was living and working abroad, it was St Giles Hill that drew me back. On trips home, the Viewpoint at St Giles was invariably the first place I'd head, fresh off the red-eye from New York, coffee in hand, to soak in the space - and THAT view - and experience a sense of homecoming.

In all seasons, at any time of day, you'll see friends in pairs or groups strolling the paths or sitting on the benches, deep in conversation. Five years ago, my dog, Cooper, met his best friend, Oakley, a raffish-looking boxer, running along the wooded slopes. Thanks to Cooper, I met Oakley's owner, Jonathan, who in due course became my best friend.

Since becoming a City Councillor, I've spoken to hundreds of residents about the Park and what it means to them. For many, it's been an important backdrop to their lives and the lives of their children or grandchildren. One couple of I spoke to got engaged at the Viewpoint. One elderly lady sits most days on a memorial bench dedicated to her late husband; another lays flowers at the foot of a memorial tree. She reminds me it's a place where old memories are treasured, not just new ones made.

The Victorian civic chiefs who established the Park modestly proclaimed its purpose as a place for "public exercise and recreation." A hundred and thirty years later, that purpose is still being vigorously fulfilled by all the joggers, the strollers, the yoga practitioners and the dog-walkers who ply its paths every day.

But in many other ways, the Park long ago exceeded its founders' objectives. As the city has grown, tripling in size since the Park opened, St Giles has provided a bulwark against overdevelopment. Dense with foliage, it's a haven for a variety of insects and animals - a slice of nature in the city. At a distance, it provides a stage set for the city itself, a looming green backdrop to views of the High Street, College and Cathedral, and, in its own quiet way, as much a part of the city's sense of place as any one of them.