July 2017

Like Pearson Park Pickering Park, on the north side of Hessle High Road, was a product of private benevolence. The land on which the Corporation mapped-out the facilities planned for the Park was donated by Christopher Pickering early in the 20th century, at which point, like the other Parks discussed, it was then on the

East Park, north of Holderness Road and surely Hull’s largest park in area, was an area of post-enclosure farmland landscaped in the late 1880s. Like West Park it incorporated a central ‘carriageway’ bordered by an avenue of trees (see above photo.), this enabling the more wealthy inhabitants to ‘progress’ through the park in their carriages,

Pearson Park remained as Hull’s only public park for over two decades. Both East and West Parks were the result of municipal initiatives with land for both being initially earmarked in the mid 1880s. The development of and history of West Park, on land bought previously from the North Eastern Railway Company, has been well documented in the

Pearson Park, Beverley Road, Hull was the town’s first public park. Like Baysgarth Park, Barton it was the result of private benevolence in that the then town’s mayor Zacharia Pearson donated land for the creation of the Park, land that was then beyond the northern fringe of the built-up area. Unlike Baysgarth Park then Pearson

For the East Riding another source of evidence on ’emparked’ private park landscapes are the county maps dating from the late 18th and 19th centuries. A complete collection may be viewed at the county archives lodged at the Treasure House, Beverley. One good example is Emanuel Bowen’s county map of the mid 18th century. Bowen,

To do the work involved in the supposed landscaping of Baysgarth House’s 14 acre parkland (see previous blog) the Nelthorpe family would have mustered a workforce and used ‘pattern book’ ideas rather than a nationally recognised landscape gardener. Probably this was true of other similar sized parklands in north Lincolnshire such as at Saxby Hall (financed