A star park is born: Stories of change in Whitleigh Big Local

Journalist Harriet Marsden has been travelling the country speaking to people about their lives and communities. In this piece she speaks to Star in Whitleigh about changing her name, changing her lifestyle, changing her home, and changing her community.

In Whitleigh, a post-war housing estate in north Plymouth that overlooks the city from a hill, a crop circle has appeared. Shrouded by dense green woodland, a new pocket park and play area seems left behind by forest fairies. But the project was the result of a two-year combined effort between Whitleigh Big Local, the council, the local schools – and the ribbon was cut by a real-life Star.

The local resident and member of community group Whitleigh Big Local, known as Star, stands out against the green backdrop and multicoloured bunting, with her closely shaved hair and all-black outfit, a heavy crucifix and a Born to be Wild biker waistcoat. She is acknowledged to have been one of the main driving forces behind the project, but to her great surprise, the park has been renamed in her honour.

Star stands out against the green backdrop and multicoloured bunting, with her closely shaved hair and all-black outfit, a heavy crucifix and a Born to be Wild biker waistcoat.

My dad brought me up on bikes, my brothers all had bikes. My mum was so comfortable on my dad’s bike that one day she fell asleep.

But unsurprisingly, she was not a Star born. “My real name’s Rosemary, but nobody uses it. I hate the name Rosemary.”

Rosemary Drew, who turned 61 recently, grew up in the neighbourhood as a biker. “My dad brought me up on bikes, my brothers all had bikes. My mum was so comfortable on my dad’s bike that one day she fell asleep. He had to wake her to remind her to bend!”

When they told me they were naming the park after me, I was shocked, but it was such a pleasant shock.

So, when she was younger, she was known by what she calls a “biker name”. “When I left – well, you don’t leave them, but when I came away from that scene – I wanted to get reestablished as someone I could get on with.”

So where did she find it? “It sounds stupid, but I used to like a film called The Lost Boys.”

In the 1987 vampire movie, one of the eponymous lost boys becomes fascinated with a beautiful young woman played by Jami Gertz – named Star. “I turned around and said to my children, I’ve found my name. It’s something I feel comfortable with and it’s been my name ever since.”

It seems this name is here to stay, judging by the constellation of tattooed stars cascading down her arms. And her efforts for the Big Local area have been immortalised in Star Park.

“When they told me they were naming the park after me, I was shocked, but it was such a pleasant shock. My four boys were over the moon.”

It stands as a testament to Star’s efforts to improve her own life. She tells me she started using drugs when she was just 21, and has served a nine-month prison sentence. But one day, she says, she decided to “clean herself up”. “The bloke who was living with me decided to leave, and we had a discussion at the school about how my health was going to affect me bringing up my children – so I got up and said, that’s it.

“I was just beginning to sort my life out, so I decided that I wanted something to do.”

So Star moved into Whitleigh, and has now been clean for more than a decade. She then used her experiences and natural empathy to train and qualify in 2013 as a ‘listener’ – similar to a counsellor, as she hears people’s problems and concerns, but she does not offer any constructive advice or treatment: just a sympathetic ear and a cup of tea.

I was just beginning to sort my life out, so I decided that I wanted something to do.”

Judging by her energy, you might see Star as a picture of health. Only the cane she leans on at times is a giveaway. About 15 years ago, Star was diagnosed with fibromyalgia – chronic pain, all over the body. She also suffers from “a fuzzy head – sometimes the muscles in my head play up a bit”. She explains it’s the medication that stops her working, as it “takes over my whole body”.

“But,” she says, “I can’t sit on my arse and do nothing.”

Star became more and more involved with community projects, like the local art group and litter-picking outings. When she first arrived in Whitleigh, nobody really wanted to get involved. “You’d put on stuff like art groups and they weren’t interested.”

I can’t sit on my arse and do nothing.”

She says that the council has only recently begun investing time and resources in Whitleigh. “Before that there were no new houses going up, no new schemes, but now we have quite a few things and more interest coming our way.”

“When I first moved here, there was no interaction with anyone – people had their own little circle and kept to it. And the more you tried pulling them in the more they pushed away. But because of younger people coming in with children now, I actually think there’s a lot more things going on. Now, you get a lot more people coming, and more of a diversity of people.”

When she noticed that the council had started looking at parks around the north end of Whitleigh, she said to Pippa St John Cooper – community development manager at Whitleigh Big Local: “It’d be nice to get this central park sorted.” At the annual Four Greens meeting in 2019, a woman “tapped me on the shoulder and said she was from the government. She said, I’d like to talk to you about the park. And that’s how it started.”

Barry Meek – by name although not by nature – is the chair of the BL area, says that Pippa contacted Plymouth city council who also wanted to fix up a park, so they “got into partnership with us”. “Star talked to people, she got all the families to come down, with all the drawings to show people, so it was a resident-led idea. Then we all put it together and submitted it.”

Star and the Big Local team took Winnie – the cosy Whitleigh community van – to sit at the derelict site and receive residents. “There was hardly anything there – just a couple of broken swings. Most of the equipment had been taken away or damaged.”

Of course, the pandemic slowed down all proceedings, but Star still walked around the whole area of 8,000 residents and knocked on as many doors as she could. She told them: “If you want a park put there, you’re going to have to come and put the effort in, to explain what you want to come out of the park.” She also talked to “lots of official people, which made me extremely nervous”.

But, she says, it was a struggle to even get people to open their doors, let alone come down to the park to view the site. “I find it easier to walk than to sit down, because when I sit down I seize up. When I’m walking it’s not as bad. But it was still very tiring.”

Star is a popular local figure, well known through her volunteer work with Big Local activities and the time bank

Nevertheless, Star is a popular local figure, well known through her volunteer work with Big Local activities and the time bank, where you offer an hour in service in exchange for an hour from someone else. “I moved here because I had a drug problem, but I got my life sorted out, brought my children up and I’m well respected in the area.”

Although Whitleigh scores very highly on every metric of deprivation, from unemployment to education, Barry says the area is “full of lovely families who want to better themselves”.

Plus, she says, in an area with a higher than city average number of small children, the silence of lockdown was all too noticeable. Now that the park’s open, Star says she feels happy for the very first time. “I was on such a rollercoaster knowing that something had been put in my name, especially after all the effort I put in.”

Now, Star says, she would never leave Whitleigh.

“I look at the park and I look at the woods, right from my window, and I couldn’t imagine going back into a housing estate where I had to look at buildings. I was born in the country, so this is like my home from home.”

One of her children has even brought her four-year-old grandson to see Star’s legacy. “It’s so nice to see them all down there, to sit outside and hear the children play again.”