August 2023

It is remarkable how adoring the 19th century governments, local and national, were to the celebrity of Queen Victoria, even in the first 20 or so years of her reign when it could not have been known that she would outlive all previous monarchs. The statue above from Pearson Park, Hull was created in the […]

Above photo common gulls on the ice at East Park, Hull, February ’23. In Kingston upon Hull probably the city’s newest park is Victoria Park on Victoria Dock Village whereas what some call England’s oldest municipal park is also called Victoria Park (strictly speaking the Royal Victoria Park) in Bath, Somerset. The Park in Bath

Any regular reader, and I thank you if you are, will realise that continuity with this section has been a struggle, not that there is anything wrong with the theme its just that I have struggled for ideas other than just sounding like extracts from the Collins Book of Trees. So I will conclude this

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

History often denies simple answers, such as where was the first municipal park in Britain created? Three relevant texts; Elborough, T. ‘A Walk in the Park’ (Penguin Random House, 2016), Lasdun, S. ‘The English Park’ (Andre Deutsch, 1991) and Conway, Hazel ‘Public Parks’ (Shire Garden History, 1996) have varying opinions. Of the two words ‘municipal’