FIFTY-FIVE
The park on Redemption Island had been laid out on the only substantial patch of land on the entire island that had not at one time been swallowed up by the rapacious needs of industry.
The land had been owned by the family of benevolent industrialist Benjamin Tyzack who believed that workers needed somewhere to sit and breathe clean(ish) air during their, albeit short, lunch break.
Accordingly therefore, he kept the piece of land, the size of two football pitches undeveloped and in his will he gifted the land to the local council, with the proviso that it was to remain unbuilt upon in perpetuity.
For many years the council did nothing with the land, it became a rubbish dump, overrun with thigh-high weeds, rusting cans, and all manner of rank detritus. It became a stinking e
