The troublesome image above is of a postcard dated July 13th, 1911 and was reproduced in a copy of the Hull Daily Mail on December 5th, 2008. It shows the main entrance gates to Pickering Park off Hessle High Road when they were first made and installed in 1909. The businessman Christopher Pickering (shown top-left) apparently paid £1000 for them. Over 100 years later they survive intact, albeit rusty and weather-worn in places.
The next of this year’s parks and cemeteries guided walks on Saturday 11th April is at Pickering Park, meeting at these gates at 10am.
The photo taken in 1909 serves to show how indebted we are to our predecessors who initiated such public facilities, especially so as they only saw then in there very early stages, whereas we see the full fruits of their labours and expenditures.
Christopher Pickering only had 10 years to live after donating the 50 acres of his land to the City Council as celebrated in the above photo. Having been born just four years after Queen Victoria’s inauguration in modest circumstances he spent all his working life building-up various businesses related to Hull’s fishing industry, latterly owning over one hundred steam driven trawlers.
The detailed development of Pickering Park was delayed by the Great War and as the very elderly Mr. Pickering lived in Hornsea he did not see the full development of this project.
One line of thought on Saturday will be to draw similarities between C. Pickering and Pickering Park and T. Ferens and East Park. Another focus will be the original lakes.
