Author name: Richard Clarke

When considering birdsong a distinction needs to be made between ‘song’ and ‘call’. The former is more complex and often has melody, whereas the latter is usually more strident and monotonous, an alarm signal warning of an approaching threat. Blackbirds have a particularly loud alarm call which, in my experience, is recognised as such by other […]

The cuckoo’s distinctive call as a harbinger of spring is welcomed by those persons visiting parks, recreation grounds and cemeteries especially now as apparently migrating numbers have declined greatly, the call then being evidence that some still exist. Although this positive aspect to the cuckoo’s life cycle is most welcome, a negative aspect was always that it

An interesting idea was followed-up in an article in the latest edition of Landscape History (Vol. 40, 2019, Issue 1), the Journal of the Society for Landscape Studies, in an article entitled ‘Sound in the Landscape’. In fact this is the first of three articles with the sub-heading ‘A Study of the Historical Literature’ so

A minute of the Parks Committee of Hull Municipal Corporation in 1906 refers to a plan to upgrade the Cannon Street Recreation Ground with perimeter planting and fence and further improvements to ‘meet by-laws’. These improvements were still being discussed in December of that year. Such references evidence an important point, which is that the Municipal

A reference to ‘Cannon Street recreation ground’ appears in the minutes of the Parks Committee, Hull Corporation in the summer of 1891. It appears that the land of the ‘rec.’ was leased from Hull Municipal Hospitals and that this 21 year lease was coming to an end, the Committee recommended renewal. So it seems that

The photo above shows the south facing entrance door to the chapels complex at Eastern Cemetery, Hull, to the left the war memorial mentioned in a recent blog. Over the last six months (almost) have been highlighting my main focus of study and research currently, that being the history, locally and nationally, of municipal parks,