Public Walks were basically composed of three things grass, trees and a wide path, possibly rustic seats along the way. They were not municipal but organised by landowners who recouped their initial outlay by charging an entrance fee and maybe sometimes laying on some entertainments. Although citizens could always take a walk through the streets it seems that a semi-rural environment was considered a more appropriate environment to see and to be seen in.
In the 1830s the burgesses and aldermen of Kingston upon Hull Corporation were discussing the possibility of creating a ‘walk’ around the edge of the then town to the west, north and east thus making it possible to walk or ride round the town from Humber bank to Humber bank. This was never acted upon but forty or so years later the Hull- Barnsley Railway followed with its high-level line the route that the ‘walk’ would have taken.
So from the earliest days of municipal parks the assumption was that, based on historical predecessors (s.p.b.s), the basic elements needed were grass and trees.
If a Georgian ‘walk’ was created the trees planted would eventually have formed an avenue (this in turn following examples from emparked estates), this again creating a model for later municipal parks.
When first planning a municipal park the issue of what was the best variety of grass to sow would have been discussed somewhere but in Hull the relevant committee minutes give no clue; such a decision may well have been devolved to the designer or parks superintendent. In the case of the civil cemetery in Barton the ground preparation including ‘seeding’ was given over to a local ‘gardener’. However, the trees to be planted in the park would have been a bigger issue with decisions in committee about the arrangement and species to be chosen. Obtaining the preferred species of tree was probably more straightforward than today as by the late 19th century there were more tree nurseries than today and even distant ones readily contactable by the postal system with two deliveries a day being the norm and transportation by the national rail network.
The history of grass cutting is interesting. For centuries sheep had grazed English churchyards and expanses of grassland on emparked estates. In municipal parks there were certainly horse-drawn mechanical mowers by the early 20th century with petrol powered mowers being developed between the Wars. During the Great War sheep were again utilised.