Nostalgia by Heather Cook

Pretty Walk with a Sinister Past.

We look at this pretty area of Rodborough, The Boulevard, that have these pretty Cotswold cottages alongside the raised walk.

Not many changes other than the trees have grown and weeds cover the low walkway wall.

The old photograph from the 30’s shows a small shop at the top of the hill with a lady standing outside.

This has been pulled down as has the large building on the opposite side of the Butterow West lane.

On Remembrance Day in 1989, a fire was discovered in one of these cottages but the fire brigade was soon on the scene to put it out.

They then made a shocking discovery of the mutilated body of a lady in the bedroom.

She had been bludgeoned to death and her clothes scattered around before being set alight.

The lady in question was Carmel Gamble who was 43 years old and suffering from anorexia, being just approximately 4 and a half stone in weight.

After many years her murder has never been solved, even though suspicions have fallen on several men over that time.

Incredibly a second murder took place in 2014, in a bungalow almost opposite to The Boulevard.

A 82-year-old gentleman called Dennis Platter was found stabbed to death in his home, this time the crime was solved and a man admitted to the murder.

So this place has some gruesome secrets of murder, but it’s still a lovely place to live.