Wallington Village seat

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John Perry was a UK citizen who emigrated to Canada. He eventually joined the Canadian Army and fought in the Second World War.

Some years after the war he returned to the UK and moved into Waterside Gardens which was a new development in Wallington. John planted a Canadian Maple tree in the small green at the end of the cul-de-sac.

Wallington Village Community Association was formed in the late 1970's and John was one of the founding members. Over the years John and his wife Margaret worked hard with others to save the “Wallington Bridge” which at the time was seen to be the cause of the local flooding.

John later became the chairman of the association for many years and was very instrumental in getting the Wallington village Hall built.

His son Michael who had stayed in Canada regularly holidayed in the U.K. to see his parents. Sadly John passed away in 2013 and his son Michael donated a sum of money so that a circular seat could be erected around the tree. This has now become a focal point of the cul-de-sac where his parents had lived happily for so long.

Over the years the weather has taken its toll and a lack of maintenance saw two of the six sections fall apart. The company that made the seat was contacted to see if they could repair it and they collected the 2 sections. After some 3 or 4 months the chairs had not been repaired so it was requested that they be returned.

We were then contacted to see if we could help in the restoration. The two seats were taken away and repaired. The seats were returned and in the process of trying to level the whole six part circular seat another two sections fell apart! These like the first two were repaired and now the seat is complete and levelled. A new brass plaque has been added to the chair in memory of John and Margaret.

When the seat was re-installed it needed to be finished with a protective coat but something seemed to get in the way and it was impossible to add the finish until lockdown was relaxed a bit. When it was allowable to leave the safety of our own homes Mick and Colin returned with pots of whatever was needed and finished the job. It now really does looks the part. Presumably everybody needs their own seats at the current time because of social distancing.