Penarth : Alexandra Park

One hundred and seventeen years ago this week, on 25 June 1902, Penarth’s Alexandra Park was officially opened. What was once a steep-sloping field, with tree-filled dingles on each side, became a place to promenade, to admire the views, to sit and enjoy the music from a band performing in the bandstand, to marvel at the birds in the small aviary and the brightly coloured fish in the pond, to breathe in the fresh sea air amidst well-manicured gardens and mature trees.

The main entrance

And it still is some of those things – though I’ve yet to see a band using the bandstand, and most of the views have been obscured, either by growing trees or the modern high-rise apartment blocks that now tower over the streets below the park.

The land for the park was gifted to the town by Lord Windsor, and the local Town Surveyor already had his plan ready for submission to Penarth Council’s Parks Committee by March 1899. Tenders for the construction of the various paths and buildings and the planting of gardens, shrubs and more trees were issued in 1901, and by March 1902 work was well underway, as this article in the Evening Express of 4 March 1902 reports

PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS AT PENARTH.
A number of public improvements are now in progress at Penarth. A park, six and a half acres in extent, lying between Beach-road and the Dingle, and commanding a view of the Bristol Channel and the English coast, is being made. The natural beauties of the Dingles will be maintained, and the under portions will be laid out with footpaths and shrubberies. A large public shelter to seat upwards of 100 persons will be erected. There will also be an ornamental bandstand and a picturesque lodge for the park-keeper. The Dingle on the north side will be spanned by a rustic footbridge, and numerous seats will be scattered about.

  

Above, the bandstand; below, the bottom entrance and park-keeper's lodge

Alexandra Park was named in honour of Queen Alexandra, wife of King Edward VII, and the opening was timed to coincide with their coronation, which was originally scheduled for 26 June 1902 but had to be delayed until August as the King required surgery. There was talk of delaying the park’s opening too but, in the end, the Town Council decided to proceed. Here’s a report from the Barry Dock News, 4 July 1902:

NEW PARK FOR PENARTH.
The Park and Cliff Walk Grounds [a separate area], Penarth, which have been appropriately named Alexandra Park, in honour of her Majesty the Queen, were formally opened on Wednesday week last by Mr Samuel Thomas J.P., the chairman of Penarth Urban District Council. Three years ago Lord Windsor, who is the largest landowner in the district, generously offered various pieces of land, amounting in all to about sixteen acres, to the Council, who decided to lay out the most suitable and picturesque of these sites as a park to be closed at sundown, while the others were to be laid out as recreation grounds, to be left open at all times. The park is a decided acquisition to the town. It is charmingly situated between Beech-road and the Dingle footpath, and overlooks the Bristol Channel, and commands a. splendid and uninterrupted view of the Somersetshire coast. Being well wooded with full-grown trees, with rustic walks, excellently laid-out footpaths, and possessing an ornamental bandstand and numerable seats at convenient spots, the ground forms an ideal place wherein residents and visitors can spend a pleasant afternoon.

Of course, over time many things have changed in the park – some buildings and the original glasshouses have been demolished, small parts of its grounds have been sold off, a Cenotaph was constructed in 1924, but the park also retains much of its Victorian flavour, with its topiary yew trees and the annual plantings of riotous colour in its garden beds. And the aviary still houses a small population of budgies, canaries and doves, and the pond its goldfish, perhaps the descendants of their original inhabitants.

The aviary, above, and the pond, below

My photos were taken during a walk in the park earlier this week but you can see some wonderful old postcards and photographs of how it looked in its early years, and read more of its history, on the Penarth Parks website.

Penarth: Drinking fountains

If you’re a regular to this blog, you’ll know that I’m a fan of drinking fountains and various things cast-iron so imagine my delight when I was walking past St Augustine’s Church, here in Penarth, recently and discovered it has a magnificent old drinking fountain built in to the south-western side of its stone boundary wall. And it’s a cracking fountain!

The church itself was built in 1865-66 but I haven’t been able to discover whether the drinking fountain was also installed around that time or whether it was a later addition. 

This cast-iron scallop-shell beauty was made in Glasgow at the Saracen Foundry, home to Walter MacFarlane & Co Ltd, Scotland’s most important manufacturer of ornamental ironwork.

MacFarlane’s had a catalogue of their cast-iron creations, which include this model, No. 17 Drinking Fountain. I have read that only four examples of this particular pattern still exist but I’m not sure if that’s true. 

It’s certainly a very ornate piece, with a splendid pair of griffins flanking the top arch, a graceful crane standing amongst reeds in the centre medallion, and what looks to me like a stylised peacock, its mouth/beak the tap for the water (but that may be my fertile imagination!).

Penarth also boasts a second old drinking fountain, though you might struggle to recognise it as such these days, as only a table-like pedestal remains. It’s located in Alexandra Park, very near an ornamental fountain and a group of bird cages housing budgies and canaries.

According to the Memorial Drinking Fountains blog (yes, there is someone who loves these artworks even more than I do!), this fountain was another of Walter MacFarlane’s designs, a number 7, and

The original structure was 5 feet 8 inches high, a single pedestal with four decorative columns and descending salamander relief that supported the decorated basin. A central urn with four projecting tendrils offered drinking cups suspended by chains. The terminal was a crane, a symbol of vigilance.

This drinking fountain was apparently purchased in 1911; it was certainly installed prior to 1915 as it can be seen in an old postcard of the park dated that year.

It seems Penarth may once have had more historic drinking fountains which have since been lost as I found this report in The Cardiff Times of 10 July 1886, p.8:

PENARTH LOCAL BOARD.

The usual monthly meeting was held on Monday evening, there being present Messrs Edwards (chairman), Forrest, Ingram, Pile, Bevan, Shepherd, Belcher, and Corbett. The Chairman reported that the seats, committee had arranged to place 36 seats in various parts of Penarth (such as the Esplanade, the Dingle, and Beach-hill), one set of ladies' retiring-rooms, two urinals, and two drinking fountains on the Esplanade, one drinking fountain near the police-station, and another near the Ship Hotel.

The Ship Hotel was demolished soon after the Second World War and, though I’ve walked the streets around the other locations named in the newspaper report, unfortunately I’ve found no evidence of those other old fountains. What I have found though is the modern equivalent.

The 21st-century version was installed with much fanfare in September 2013 in Belle Vue Park. The Penarth News blog reports that this modern American-made drinking fountain, ‘the first of its kind in Europe’ (!), was erected to celebrate the centenary of the park. Two councillors turned out, local residents dressed in period costume, and a time capsule was even planted beneath this new-fangled innovation.

It may provide ‘a vertical stream from which people can drink, a bottle filling facility which it’s hoped will encourage the re-use of plastic bottles and a special drinking bowl for dogs at the base’ but, personally, I think it’s ugly, and it’s certainly no match for the wonderful works of art that Walter MacFarlane & Co manufactured back in the good old days!