Author name: Richard Clarke

This black and white photo, undated but probably inter-War, is a favourite of mine. It shows a carriage of the Snowdon Light Railway pulled by a steam driven locomotive ascending the line from Llanberis to the peak of Mount Snowdon. Snowdon is the highest mountain peak in Wales at approx. 3500 feet above sea level, […]

After some years of gathering evidence I have started to compose a book about Hull’s municipal parks and cemeteries in the national context between c. 1850 and 1950, hopefully with a final chapter summing-up what has happened since 1950 . The overall plan runs to 11 chapters including an Introduction, and so far I’m in

Andrew Robinson of Barton on Humber first alerted me to the surviving menagerie building in the grounds of Burton Constable Hall in Holderness (s.p.b.). He has since added to my knowledge by bringing my attention to the surviving menagerie building at Nostell Priory, near Wakefield . On the face of it this building seems very

A further list of some of the plants, animals and birds donated to Pearson Park between 1880 and 1914, evidence from the minutes of the Burial and Parks committee viewed at Hull History Centre. The royal gift of four swans, 1902, was a standard gift to the municipal parks around the country to celebrate the

Pearson Park, Hull’s first municipal park, was inaugurated in 1860 having previously been four fields on the edge of town. The original plan for the Park did not include a menagerie but clearly one developed. The list above records some of the donations to the Park from members of the public over a 40 year

Zoological Gardens in towns like Kingston upon Hull were historically a stepping stone between private menageries and public ones in municipal parks where viewing the wildlife was free to all who came to the park. Two steps back were private menageries which might be outdoor cages and enclosures or where the ‘exhibits’ were housed in