OVER the weekend, we've been in springlike mood, taking a tour through time in Darlington's amazing array of public parks, which give the town is green feel.
READ FIRST: A TOUR THROUGH TIME IN DARLINGTON'S PARKS, PART 1
But we are anot finished yet. Let's complete our historic tour, bringing it right up to date:
Alderman Tommy Crooks Park
TOMMY CROOKS (above) was born in remote Westerdale on the North York Moors in 1855, but came to the bright lights of Darlington in 1869 to work on the railway. He moved up and by the time he retired in 1904, he was an engine driver.
He must also have been shrewd with his money, because he retired aged 49 before there was a state pension.
He devoted the rest of his life to the council, chairing the Parks Committee and so involved in many of the town’s parks, and becoming mayor in 1920.
In 1930, he bought six acres of land off Yarm Road to prevent it from being built on and presented it to the townspeople in recognition of “all the kindness and good will they have shown to me and my wife during our residence of over half-a-century in the town”.
He opened the land as a park bearing his name on July 4, 1935 – the year of George V’s Silver Jubilee. The main adornment of the park was a line of 17 trees known as the “Jubilee Avenue”.
Green Park
THIS is one of the best sledging spots in the town centre, should we ever get snow again. It was originally part of Joseph Pease’s Southend mansion but, following his death in 1872, the Waldy family rescued three acres of it from the builders.
Dr John Waldy, a surgeon, owned all six houses in Green Park Terrace on Coniscliffe Road, so he was effectively preventing anyone building in his back yard, but he allowed the public into the parkland. Its grassy hill created a natural amphitheatre so church services and theatrical performances were held there.
Dr Waldy died in 1937, leaving £60,000 which he split among his family, friends and good causes. He stipulated that if there was any money left after everyone was paid, Green Park should be donated to the council. If not, it would go for prime West End building land.
In the end, his estate was £598 16s 5d short – but the council paid that off and acquired the park, which opened to the public in 1960.
Its main feature, once the boating lake was filled in, was the 12ft high fountain which in 1858 had been installed in Tubwell Row. It was vandalised when the park opened, and so in 1970, it was moved to Bull Wynd where it is to this day.
Bushel Hill Park
BUSHEL HILL, beside Mowden school, is 200ft above sea level and so one of the highest points in the borough. In 1850, the Darlington Gas and Water Company built an 800,000 gallon circular reservoir up there, using gravity to distribute the water to the town centre.
In 1971, the reservoir was drained, demolished and grassed, and the area became a public park. You can, though, still see the circular shape of the reservoir in the grass.
A bushel, which is a measure for corn that is equal to four pecks or eight gallons, can also be spelled “bushell” – and Darlington’s park seems to get both ways, too.
West Park
THE closure of Darchem – the Darlington Chemical & Insulating Company – in the 1980s left many environmental problems on the edge of Cockerton, not least the works’ old tip that was riddled with asbestos.
However, the contamination was removed and any low level remnants were capped with clay and then turned into Darlington’s first new park for several generations.
Bussey & Armstrong, the developers of the West Park housing estate around the park, handed over the new park to the council on June 21, 2005.
It has artworks in stone and Corten steel, plus poems – many with a historical them – by Bill Herbert, and it doubles as a nature reserve which is the home to several rare species.
Gerald Lee Pocket Park
IN 2014, a derelict 25 square metres of land beneath an advertising hoarding on a town centre roundabout was adopted by local residents and members of the Friends of the Earth, who converted it into a “pocket park”.
The park, on the Feethams roundabout, was officially opened on July 29, 2014, by mayor Cllr Gerald Lee, after whom it was named in honour of his environmental work. It featured colourful flowers, a bird box, bee hotel and tiny pond.
According to the Guinness Book of Records, the UK’s smallest park is Prince’s Park in Burntwood, Staffordshire. It was created in 1863 to commemorate the wedding of the future King Edward VII and it features three trees, a bench and a fence. Its dimensions are given as a whopping 15ft by 30ft, which we reckon is 41.8 square metres.
It therefore towers over Darlington’s diminutive pocket park, which could once have laid claim to the curious title of being the country’s smallest. However, when the hoarding was electrified in 2022, much of the park was paved over. Now it has a bench and a couple of planters on it – does that make it qualify as a municipal park?
Blackwell Parkland
MANY of Darlington’s parks were created at the end of the Victorian era when the council stepped in to buy land to prevent it from being gobbled up by house-builders. This spending of ratepayers money on such “extravagance” was seen by some as controversial but their purchases are now part of what makes Darlington such an attractive place to live.
In a complete about turn of history, Darlington’s newest park is being created in the council-owned Georgian parkland surrounding Blackwell Grange. In 2013, when the golf club vacated the parkland, it seemed that the council might sell it to house-builders, but vociferous pressure from ratepayers has forced a compromise whereby some land on the edge of the estate has been sold for executive homes and the proceeds are being used to create another green lung for the ever-growing town.
READ THE FULL STORY OF THE BLACKWELL PARKLAND, AND DARLINGTON'S ONLY GRAND FIR, HERE
- Are there any other parks or green spaces we should include? What about Sugar Hill Park in Cockerton? How does it get its name? All suggestions and stories welcome. Please email chris.lloyd@nne.co.uk
READ MORE: HOW ONE OF THE WORLD'S LARGEST LIVING ORGANISMS CAME TO GRACE A DARLINGTON PARK
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