In our childhood and youth the Pannier Market only opened on a Friday and for special events such as the annual flower show and annual fatstock show.
As children it was an after-school delight to slip into the market and view these animals and beautiful flowers. It is certainly good news that heating and toilets have been installed and also that the market is used most days of the week and it obviously attracts many visitors during the summer months. However, it was certainly well used prior to then.
The town hall and surrounding area have always been a source of pride to Tavistock people. However, please do not think for one minute that we did not have the facilities in the town hall before the improvements.
Most old Tavistock people will remember the late Stan Goode from the old White Hart, and his team, providing bars at events there and later on he also facilitated the catering after Perratons had closed down.
There was also a regular Saturday night dance held there to which many great groups and our local 'Dougie Young's Showband' played. We had Procol Harum in the week their 'Whiter Shade of Pale' went to number one in the charts. The Troggs and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes also performed live.
The apparently abandoned transit sheds and nondescript workshops had been, until the coming of the leisure pool, a thriving workplace in our Wharf. Most of these were rented to local small tradesmen with businesses and also used as storage and workshops for the Tavistock Town Council.
As for the Meadows themselves. We always had a good playground there, albeit with frugal equipment, but nevertheless it thrived with happy children all year round. Our parents could safely send us there for a morning with our younger brothers and sisters and know we would come to no harm.
There was always football to watch at the bottom of the Meadows, we could play in the sandpit, paddle in the paddling pool, collect newts and tadpoles from the beautiful lily pond complete with fountain, and play hide and seek in and out of the bushes.
As young mothers we pushed our prams with the next generation of Tavistokians and took them to the playground and let them paddle in the pool and run around to their hearts content (all under our watchful eyes and the eyes of all our friends as we looked out for one another's children).
The abandoned garage Mr Kirkpatrick mentioned belonged to the family of Carrs. In its day it was a beautiful car showroom, place to hire a car (for £2 a day!), place to take your car for repairs and the place for a 17 year old girl to drool over a two-seater Austin Healey Sprite!
Of course, things have moved on and improvements made and Tavistock, to it's credit, has done things particularly well.
We loved our town as it was and as a very frequent visitor I still love the town. I agree that in some things the town has been made, in Mr Kirkpatrick's words, good-er, and appreciate times change. Our old Tavistock was great for us with a population of only 5,000 people who all knew one another and one another's families.
Bev Warren
Blackpool