Land surrounding Broad Brook

Information passes on to our Environmental Association from Cheryl Burchell,

Broad Brook: Pleasant St. to Starrs Rd.
-Buildings erected in this area frequently dealt with flooding and or settling problems, due to the soft ground beneath them
-The strip mall where the old “Subway” was located experienced major damage 3-5 yrs. back (repairs were carried out) because of settling; the foundation on the east end of sunk 2-3 inches causing cracks to run in the foundation; footings for buildings were tricky to install because of Broad Brook and all the various paths it took.
-Way before my time, Saulnier’s pond (Starrs Rd. Area) was a popular place for public skating.
-Ducks frequent this area, as do deer, etc…
The Crusher
-Many years ago the town was responsible for its own paving; behind the old public works building they had a “crusher” that crushed the stones to make the asphalt.
-When someone yelled “Let’s go to the crusher!” it meant the area colored in yellow. [area north of Pleasant Street and between Starrs Road and Parade Street, near where the Public Works is presently (at the top of King Street)]
-The blue dotted strip running through the yellow area is just one of many sections of Broad Brook; it was a great skating area which was quite wide in places; most kids knew the areas to stay clear of due to thin ice, but breaking through the ice did happen on occasion; some areas were quite deep and respected by all; a hockey game in one of the wider areas was a common thing.

Horse Pond
-Between Pleasant Street and Marsha Avenue near King Street
-No one I’ve spoken with knows where it got its name
-Shallow swampy area, maybe knee deep
-Part of the Broad Brook flood plain
-Would freeze and allow a bit of skating with clumps of grass growing up through the ice here and there; safer for the smaller kids in the neighborhood
-Most residences (Marsha Ave., King St. and Pleasant St.) that back yards abutted the “Horse Pond” had wet, mushy lawns
-Deer still can be spotted here at times and musk rats aren’t unusual

More Memories

Mr. Surette's Interview June 27th 2007

Trefry’s pond, where Kent Building supplies is now is where Mr. Surette and many others would skate and play hockey. It was a huge rectangular pond with a circular island in the middle. We had fires there and tied our skates on the island. The island was approximately 10 X10 feet. The pond remained full all the times and was very deep and was bigger than a hockey rink. Exactly where Kent’s is now was where the pond was. He remembers this from the early 70’s. The pond could be full of people playing hocking or skating. No fishing happened that he recalls. In summer the pond was still rectangular and would stay pretty full. The pond was channeled in the middle and was like a water fall down the side to where the highway 101 runs now. Trefry sold the land to the highway. At the time it was all open land around there and there were cows and horses. They needed to make the hill flat to build. Starrs road was there and there were houses where Pizza Delight is now; and when they sold them the businesses grew. They wore no equipment when playing hockey. They used rocks or boots for the hockey nets. It was the biggest skating pond in town. It was all marsh from Kent’s right down to YJHS. The crusher, which was located behind the town maintenance building, was where they would also skate. This marsh area also fed into Broad Brook at the time. There were lots of deer, ducks and wildlife in this area.