The Oakhaven Gazette
Monday 9 November 2026Radworth Ward · No. 15Delivered free to every houseOakhaven City Council area
EXCLUSIVE · GREEN BOSS, PLOT R5
GROW FOR IT!
Fifteen pounds for a litre of Grow Juice A, three hundred and eighty-three lines on the shelves - and a lad of twenty-two behind the counter who wants to know if you're the law
FIFTEEN POUNDS A LITRE. That is Grow Juice A on the shelf at Green Boss, the grow shop on plot R5. Pick it up, and you pay for it at the till on your way out of the door.
The shelves are full now. Ten fixtures and three hundred and eighty-three lines on display: nutrients in A and B, grow and bloom, pH up and pH down, rockwool and seedling pots, big pots, scales, tents in two sizes, carbon filters, inline fans, dehumidifiers, bags of coir, buckets, cans, clip fans, LED panels and extension leads.
And the lights are on.
Behind the counter is Liam Tansley, 22, of 15 Limekiln Close, in a green T-shirt to match the shop front and a name badge with LIAM under the wordmark. Ask him about seeds and he has an answer ready.
“Seeds? No. We're an equipment shop,” he said. Then he looked our reporter up and down. “You've got a very straight back for a gardener. You're not Old Bill, are you?”
“I went in for tomato feed. I came out with tomato feed and a lot of questions,” said Ashley Groves of 124 Bestholme Boulevard.
ALSO INSIDE
Fun guys!
Mushrooms in the railway fields. Page 2.
Going up!
The Bumoral gets a lift. Page 2.
Wheel deal
Route 4 in purple. Page 3.
The Oakhaven GazetteFRONT PAGE · Page 1Continued on page 2
OUT & ABOUT
WHERE TO GO THIS WEEK
THE RAILWAY FIELDS · MIND WHAT YOU PICK
Fun guys!
TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO PATCHES. That is how many patches of liberty caps are up in the railway fields: small, pale and pointed, on six of the old hedged and walled pastures beside the line, twenty to sixty of them to a patch.
Under the trees there is something louder. Fly agarics, red with white spots, the toadstool off every picture book, come up in rings round the trunks of two hundred and sixty-eight birches and pines.
The red ones are poisonous. Leave them for the picture books.
“I've walked them fields all my life. I never looked down till this week,” said Keith Wragg of 3 Barrowby Row.
RADWORTH LEISURE CENTRE · FIRST FLOOR
Pumped up!
FORTY MEMBERS, ONE FLIGHT OF STAIRS. The gym is upstairs at Radworth Leisure Centre: treadmills down the long wall, rowers, squat racks along the windows, a leg press, a chest press, and a turf lane with a sled.
This week six exercise mats went down in the corner signed Functional, for the press-ups, the air squats and the star jumps, so the machines are kept for the machines.
It is busiest before work and after it.
ON THE HILL · THE BUMORAL
Going up!
FROM THE GROUND FLOOR TO THE PENTHOUSE. The Bumoral, the red sandstone hotel at the top of two point seven kilometres of new road, has a lift, running from the lobby up through the guest floors to the penthouse on four.
Vex and Rupert rode it up, got out, got back in and rode it down again. Crispin went up to the second floor and stayed there.
And in the Ballroom Bar the barman has room to work: the counters and the stools have come out three-quarters of a metre, and the aisle behind the bar is one metre forty.
The Oakhaven GazetteOUT & ABOUT · Page 2Continued on page 3
THE ESTATE
COUNCIL · TRADE · HOUSING
OAKHAVEN BUS COMPANY · ROUTE 4
Wheel deal
PURPLE, BOTH OF THEM. The two route 4 buses are out in new colours, and they are carrying adverts down their sides: one for the Bumoral up on the hill, one for Green Boss, and on the back panel GROW YOUR OWN TOMATOES, with an asterisk.
At the wheel, the regulars. Sukhvinder Gill, 55, of 61 Thornyholt Boulevard has one. Scott Hickling, 38, of 55 Thornyholt Boulevard has the other.
“Now I'm a billboard for a hotel I can't afford and a shop that sells buckets,” said Mr Gill.
“I asked what the asterisk was for. The depot said read the small print,” said Mr Hickling.
THE HOT-FOOD ROW
Awning glory
The seven shops on the hot-food row are still to get their awnings in the colours of their own signs: Kebabylon red and cream, the Radworth Balti House maroon with gold pinstripes, Golden Fortune, Slice Slice Baby, Jerk Hut, Burger Boss, and Bagshaws the butcher in oxblood and cream stripes.
The Oakhaven GazetteTHE ESTATE · Page 3Continued on page 4
YOUR SHOUT
WRITE TO THE EDITOR
THE EDITOR WRITES
Mind how you go
A grow shop with its lights on and a lad behind the counter who asks the questions, toadstools in rings under the birches, a lift at the hotel, and two purple buses.
Pay at the door. Leave the red ones. Hold the lift.
The smell
There is a house on our close with tin foil up at the front windows and the back, and four bags of compost by the front door, and of an evening there is a smell coming off the roof that is not anybody's dinner. I am not saying what it is. I am saying I can smell it from my front step.
Name and address supplied, Brickyard Close
The lift
They have put a lift in the hotel. I watched two of them go up one floor and come straight back down again. If I had a lift I would go to the top, just to see.
CLEMENT FRANCIS, 93 Kimberton Road
Toadstools
My grandson brought a red one with white spots home in his pocket. It is in the bin now, and so is the pocket.
SANDRA WRAGG, 3 Barrowby Row
The gym
Six mats for the star jumps. In my day you did your star jumps in the yard and you were grateful for the yard.
Name and address supplied
The Oakhaven GazetteYOUR SHOUT · Page 4End of this issue