A fitting tribute for author Andy.

It was a book remembering a colourful captain who arrived in Norwich to create the parks and playgrounds. Now the author has been honoured

A dozen years after his book telling the story of the Norwich parks was published, former city police officer Andy Anderson has been made the third life member of the Friends of Eaton Park.

He follows Victor Howe and Harry Herring, two gentlemen who have also done much to promote the park they love .

Christine Wilson, chairman of the Friends of Eaton Park, said: 'We wanted to say thank you to Andy for his important work telling the story of how Norwich's remarkable parks came to be created.'

In his book he tells how, under the leadership of the colourful Capt Sandys-Winsch, our precious parks came about.

When the captain was appointed after the first world war ended, the city had Chapelfield Gardens, the Gildencroft, Sewell Park and a couple of small playgrounds.

When he retired it could boast about 600 acres of parks, recreation grounds and open spaces. He had made new parks from rubbish dumps, rough grounds and a place filled with trenches where soldiers had trained for the first world war.

Model allotments, the first in the land, were another product of his progressive thinking and during his career in Norwich, he planted about 25,000 trees.

'Eaton Park is part of this heritage and, as a friends' group, one of the things we do is tell people about the park's history. Taking Andy's book as a starting point we've interviewed people to collect memories and found archive photographs,' explained Christine.

Andy said: 'I think the Friends are doing a good job and I was quite touched when they made me a life member. There seems to be far more interest in our parks nowadays which is a good thing.'

The Friends of Eaton Park's website is at www.friendsofeatonpark.co.uk Watch this space for stories and pictures telling the story of the Norwich parks.