Last week I saw “This is England,” a great movie by Shaun Meadows about skinhead culture in Britain in the early eighties, and was struck by how much it reminded me of Letchworth, the town in Hertfordshire where I grew up (it was especially poignant because I saw the movie with Johnny D., who also grew up with me in Letchworth, so we were able to reminisce about our shared childhood memories of skinheads roaming the streets, with Stanley knives at the ready, after the movie).
It’s often difficult to imagine the violent youth subculture in small, leafy towns like Letchworth; but here’s a (somewhat sarcastic) quote about gun crime in Letchworth from today’s Channel 4 Snowmail:
Hertfordshire shootings
=====================And it ain’t only Liverpool/Manchester/London. Because today, the day after Rhys Jones was killed, several people were injured in a gunfight in that well-known urban gangland hell-hole….er… Letchworth Garden City in Hertfordshire.
This shooting has also now made the BBC national news: Six held after man shot in face
My mother sent me a link with more news on this shooting incident; it took place at Boscombe Court flats on Pixmore Avenue, which is where my grandfather lived until he died a few years ago. My Uncle Jean and Aunt Derek still live very close by on Pixmore Avenue:
I have also recently discovered that a new ‘art’ film called “Zombie Diaries” was mainly filmed at Letchworth in the early hours of the morning when the streets were deserted. A member of the production team actually lives in Letchworth and another lives in Stevenage!