Yate Shopping Centre: 50 years from Country Fields to the New Tesco (with new photos and captions from January article)


The opening of the much heralded new Tesco Extra store has been a talking point for us all in recent months. Some love it and some loathe it, but, as with nearly all developments, in the end we generally get round to accepting it as a daily aspect of life.


It is perhaps worth remembering that over the course of the past 50 years the open fields and the worked out Spar Pits have seen a remarkable change. The plans for Yate New Town were put in place in the early 1960’s and these saw the planning and creation of the biggest private house building project in the United Kingdom and a brand new shopping area. Much is said today about the proposals for more new homes in the area, but compared with the developments and growth seen in the 1960’s, the today’s plans almost go into insignificance.


I have data on the proposed plans and photographs of the evolution from open fields to the major shop- ping area that we are familiar with today and I would like to share these with you. When I arrived in the area in 1967 much of the Stanshawe’s Estate was well under way and the Shopping Centre was being built, with a few shops already open. It is easy to forget how things have changed over the years.


The fields where the pantomime Shetland ponies were accommodated, the blacksmith’s shop next to the Swan Inn, and even that is now only a memory, the Chapel, Yate Common Post Office and cottages, where the Fire and Ambulance Stations are now, are all gone. Perhaps the photos below will bring back memories for the older residents and serve to show new comers and younger locals what was there before the shops.


1 A copy of the original ideas from the “Yatesman Newslet- ter” with the Four Seasons Statue in the Centre Square


2 A view along a quiet Station Rd. Cottages on left, Mr Under- down’s shop in centre and White Lion on right


3 The cottages demolished to make way for the Fire and Ambulance stations


4 Mr Underdown’s Sweet shop. Demolished to create a better entrance to the White Lion Car Park.


5 The start of building work on the “Southwold Sports Centre. Note Church Tower in back- ground.


6 The Swan Inn as a rural pub. The blacksmith’s shop and outbuildings were demolished to make way for the new shop- ping centre. Now even the Swan Inn has gone to make way for even more shops and car parking.


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