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The pond, Connaught Park, c.1900.
Around 1881 a number of influential local people started
pressing for a public park in the town and it was
decided to provide one by voluntary subscription.
The Department of Woods and Forests, on behalf of
the Crown, agreed to lease the land to the Corporation
for 99 years, and the townspeople subscribed £2,700
for fencing, planting, and forming lawns and terraces.
The key to the park was officially
handed over to the Mayor on 1 May 1883 and the park
was open to the public from that day on. The park
was formally opened by the Duke and Duchess of Connaught
on 14 July 1884. The Duchess planted a tree near the
pond, and the tree is still there with a plaque, on
the fence that surrounds it, commemorating the event.
The park takes its name from the Duke and Duchess,
who also named the Connaught Hall in the new Town
Hall the same day.
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A fine example of the lost art of the municipal gardeners from the 1930s.
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As originally built the park covered 25
acres extending from the lower entrance opposite Park
Avenue, to what is now the middle entrance, half way
up Connaught Hill. Shortly after the park was opened
it was enlarged taking the whole of the hillside up
to the Deal Road, and making a third entrance opposite
the Castle.
This extension added another five acres to the area
of the park, and although not very wide it greatly extended
the upper promenade. |
A famous landmark in the park was an
archway formed by the jaw bones of a large whale. They
were presented to the town in 1866 by a Mr W.T. Tourney
and later erected in the park. By the early 1960s there
was concern that the bones were decaying and the Council
thought that the structure was dangerous and beyond
repair. They were loath to do anything for fear of public
outcry but the problem was solved for them when, in
March 1967, vandals entered the park one night and cut
it down using a saw, leaving the Council to just remove
the debris.
The park remains more or less unchanged
in its main structure since Victorian times. On the
lower level the park is terraced to make formal lawns
with flowerbeds and an ornamental pond. On the next
level there are tennis courts and a children’s playground,
above this the lawns slope up the hillside to the upper
promenade. The trees planted by the Victorians have
now matured into fine specimens adding to the beauty
of the park. |
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The whale's jaw bone arch.
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A more recent addition is the aviary,
close to the main entrance, full of budgerigars, finches
and other small birds. One change is that the number
of formally planted beds has been much reduced, partly
due to changing tastes but mainly due to the cost of
the intensive gardening required to maintain such formal
displays. In spite of there being less colourful annuals
and more shrubs and lawns, the Connaught Park is still
a very pleasant spot and the upper promenade commands
spectacular views over the valley.
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Spring 2001.
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One of the many resident squirrels, May 2001.
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