Years ago public parks were often characterised by the sign ‘Keep off the Grass’. The reasons for this rather disappointing instruction were clear – in either very dry or very wet weather the grass could be so trampled that when the weather improved the grass was unable to grow again. Also discarded items might damage […]

Fitz Park, Keswick stands either side of Station Road and alongside a section of the R. Greta. The River flows across this section of the floor of the glaciated valley on land above the glacial lakes to the north and south, Bassenthwaite and Derwentwater respectively. ‘Upper’ Fitz Park is the larger of the two sections

Spent few days based at Bowness on Windermere with no wi-fi. Stayed in static caravan on Fallbarrow site, Rayrigg Rd., lovely site on rising land above Lake Windermere clearly on land that had been the grounds of a large Edwardian(?) house commanding panoramic views over Lake. Lots of mature exotic trees as well as native ones,

Picture above (taken from internet) shows the ‘Long Walk’ at Windsor Great Park, fallow deer crossing. The Royal Parks, an organisation to oversee the running of them, is now a charity called the Royal Parks of London. The eight public parks the charity administers are; Bushy Park, Green Park, Greenwich Park, Hyde Park, Kensington Park,

The terms ‘hunting parks’ and ‘deer parks’ are inter-changeable and define the extent of the hunting preserves of the baronial aristocracy and their equivalents in medieval society. These were primarily reserved for the leading family of the region but provided an on-tap recreation for visiting gentry, most especially the monarch were he to be in

The study of the history of British ‘parklands’ can seem confusing when different terms are used in different contexts. Examples of these are ‘royal forests’, ‘deer parks’, ‘hunting parks’ and ‘royal parks’. Royal forests were largely created by the early Norman monarchs after 1066 and some lasted throughout the Middle Ages, the last criminal enforcement