Abbeymead Area Guide

Abbeydale and Abbeymead are modern suburbs of the city of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire, England. They lie approximately 3 miles south-east of the city centre, and are bounded by the suburbs of Coney Hill to the north west, Barnwood and Hucclecote to the north and north east, Matson to the south west and the M5 motorway to the south and east. Mostly connected with Segregated Bicycle Paths into Gloucester city along Metz Way. The village of Upton St Leonards is immediately across the M5 motorway.

The two suburbs are contiguous and share many amenities but there is clear definition of where Abbeydale ends and Abbeymead begins.Most of the Abbeydale area was green fields until around 1970, when the Heron Park development was constructed by Heron Homesteads. At that stage it was officially known as "The Land to the East"

An example of Radburn design housing in Abbeydale, with Redpoll Way (left) facing Redstart Way across a green space. Road access is to the rear of the houses.
The first two-thirds of Heron Park appears to have been designed in accordance with the Radburn model. It consists of loops and cul-de-sacs radiating from a central spine road, Heron Way, giving access to the rear of the houses where there are garages and hard-standings. The houses face each other across interconnecting pathways and green spaces, so that pedestrians are largely separated from traffic. In keeping with the developer's brand name, the streets were named after British birds. The area is almost identical to a Heron development in Yate, South Gloucestershire which was built around the same time and even has its own Heron Way. Later parts of Heron Park, such as Hawthorne and Bittern Avenues, were not built to the Radburn model.

Source - Wikipedia