Kensington Forest

Submitted by Alan Marsden on Thu, 01/04/2021 - 00:00

Of what is this a list?

  1. Olive Farm
  2. Allerton Gardens
  3. The Grove
  4. Kensington Forest
  5. Willows Green
  6. Croston Meadow
  7. Yew Tree Park
  8. Oak Leigh Gardens
  9. Oak Wood Fields
  10. The Pastures
  11. Hawthorne Court
  12. Pinewood Park

Kensington Forest is but a quarter mile from where I live. Its name comes from a posh part of London, in whose palace the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge dwell. Yet this is Kensington Forest. Somehow, it combines the upmarket grandeur of the London borough with all the natural charm of an expansive woodland. So did you guess correctly? These are all new housing developments in Lancashire, which are either being built, or have been recently completed.

There is a danger that people like me, comfortably sitting in my own house, will snootily look down on new housing estates. Were I some young professional with a growing family stuck in expensive, rented accommodation, I might view these new, concrete lakes with a more generous eye. Be that as it may, I regret the loss of countryside which many of these cul-de-sacs devour. Good old Kensington Forest was built on brown-field land to be fair, but many of the others have not been. Their names, therefore, are deeply ironic. I imagine they were selected to evoke pleasant associations, especially among punters stuck in cities longing for the suburban dream. Yet the forests, groves, fields and pastures were destroyed by the very houses and roads which so glibly bear their names.

We humans often seek to pursue virtues. Many of us, with varying degrees of success, attempt to be more generous, more kind, more patient, more understanding. Unfortunately, the more virtuous we become, the more self-righteous we are. The more moral we become, the prouder and more resistant to God’s saving grace we are. Our self-imposed moral structures destroy further our hopes of reaching God, the source of all goodness. We must see our sin and unworthiness, while fully comprehending our corruption, before we can see our need of God’s grace and Jesus’ saving work. Just as sprawling housing estates with arcadian names cannot negate the damage they have done to the very natural environments their fancy names evoke, so our own righteousness is often the biggest stumbling block to receiving salvation.

For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:20