Illustrated
Talk on Bradford Parks by David Elcock
We
were treated to an extremely interesting and informative presentation by David on
some of the 36 parks maintained by Bradford, including their history and future
plans.
The
origin of the park came from the monasteries where the monks grew plants for
food and herbs for medicines. Over time,
they disappeared and private parks were built by the landed gentry which later
were gifted to the public by philanthropists or bought by local councils for recreational
use for the people.
One
of the parks described by David is Lister (or Manningham) Park, one of
Bradford’s largest parks, originally owned by the mill-owning Lister family. The
park has seen extensive renovations with money from the heritage lottery and in
2006 it was awarded Britain’s Best Park. Its features include a man-made
boating lake, Mughal Water gardens, botanical gardens and Cartwright Hall, a
purpose built Art Gallery.
Another
park we learnt about was Saltaire (or Robert’s) Park by the model village built
by Sir Titus Salt. This too has benefited
from heritage lottery funding.
 |
| The Llamas, Statue of Titus Salt and the river |
 |
| The renovated bandstand, the park in spring and the boathouse cafe |
Other
parks mentioned were Cliff Castle, soon to be given a face lift, and Oakworth
Hall with its man-made stone tunnels – both in Keighley, Bradford’s first
municipal park, Peel Park, Haworth Central Park and the latest park, in
Bradford City Centre, the Mirror Pool which is illuminated at night.
Display
Table
 |
| Margaret’s cyclamen coum |
Gill
brought a small pot of examples of plants in flower in her garden this week, including
rosemary, iris lazica, the snowflake Leucojum, pulmonaria, snowdrop, Ipheion 'Wisley
Blue' and Hepatica nobilis Rubra.
 |
Gill
also brought an attractive basket of spring flowers comprising : cyclamen coum,
iris, euphorbia Tasmanian Tiger, variegated
wallflower and tête à tête daffodils.
|
Dates
for your Diary
Next
Meeting: 6th March – Greatest gardening disasters/Plants I wish I
had never grown plus a plant-related Quiz. See previous post about displaying a slide of the plant(s) you wish to discuss.
Plant
Sale, for which members are asked to pot up and bring in any plants they have
spare, and the Spring Show (full details on the Paxton main website https://sites.google.com/site/paxtonhorticulturalsocietycouk/Home
Notice
Board
The
plight of the Watford Allotments which the council wishes to build on was
brought to our attention and if you wish to add your name to the petition please
click here https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/protect-all-allotments
More
locally, Inkwell allotment in Chapel Allerton which is a resource for people
with mental health issues is under threat of purchase by a private buyer for
the building of private housing.
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