Author name: Richard Clarke

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’

It may come as a surprise, it did to me, to discover that Kingston upon Hull is officially classed as a green city being, I believe, in the top ten of Britain’s green cities. I assume that this classification is determined by the degree of green coverage when deciduous trees are in leaf, this when

I’m sure that the recent Agriculture Act links in to the recognised pressing demand for the planting of many more trees. Trees absorb carbon dioxide and emit oxygen and can therefore play a significant role in reducing climate change. Globally trees are still being felled at an alarming rate where a demand exists for the