Beaumont Park's Past to Present

PPP’s-
Paintings, pictures, photos and other park memorabilia are always of interest to the Friends. If you own anything along these lines we’d like to know - so we can develop our database of information for reference and possible occasional display. Or if you are keen to donate it - that would be terrific too! Many thanks to people who responded to this appeal for Heritage Day.

Beaumont Park of yesteryear: fond memories recalled by
Jack Merewood of Netherton

I first saw Beaumont Park 87 years ago when my mother pushed me there in a pram..…….Later I had a sister and as we grew up we would go walking in the park with our parents on Sunday afternoons. Signs everywhere asked us to “Please keep off the grass” and heaven help is if we happen to step on it. When we were old enough, we used to go and play in the park with other children. There were ducks on the pond which we could feed. We went so often they used to come and meet us.

In the middle of the pond were two islands. The ducks lived on the bigger one. The islands are still there, but are surrounded by grass not water. There was a bridge going over to the big island which you could cross but it had railings across so you couldn’t go onto the island. You can still see where the bridge used to be. When we were thirsty we’d go up to the grotto which is still there in an archway above the fountain. A spring came through there and attached by a chain was an enamel mug, much the worse for wear.

There used to be a big mountain ash tree at the end of the pond surrounded by rocks. It was always exciting and daring to clamber on these, hanging over the pond. Near the pond was a large shelter which has only recently been demolished.. At one end there was a door behind which gardeners implements were stored. The other end was a shop where on Sundays ice cream and sweets were sold. In various places there were slot machines where, for a penny, you could get a thin bar of Nestles chocolate. In the package were something like cigarette cards. You could send for an album to stick them in. We’d go to play by the “castle” - always a scary place - and where there were peacocks.

In a previous article (in the FoBP Newsletter) someone mentioned three trees from the Verdun - to my knowledge there were four and still are. At the bottom of each tree was a plaque saying they were from the Verdun battlefields and planted in 1919. I remember them when they were little more than saplings. There are two trees by the side of what used to be the pond. One of these also had a plaque saying it was planted in 1883 when the park was opened. I wonder what happened to those plaques. It would be nice to see them replaced. Before the war there were railings around the park. The gates were closed and locked every night by the park keeper and then opened next morning. There was a clock face on the wall of the lodge with the words “Park closes at”… and the hands moved to the appropriate time. During the war except in dangerous places, the railings were taken down and the gates removed to be made into munitions.

One Sunday morning, many years ago after we’d been to church, I walked through the park with my daughter who was then aged about three. I told her to look out for the lion down the main walk. It was sitting on a stone slab. She found it and when we got home she told her mum she had see a lion “ sitting on a matchbox”!”. It is still there, sitting on it’s matchbox.

We now live in a different world to the one of my youth. The park isn’t so quiet as it used to be. But it is still a pleasure on a peaceful afternoon to sit on a form on the main walk…………...and reminisce. Jack Merewood, August 2006

FoBP - some of the successes so far…

Grade 2 listing for park in the Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Temporary Visitors Centre and Friends Office opened - provided by Kirklees MC & Huddersfield Pride

Successful event creation - Appointed staff - Access and pathway
improvement - Increasing awareness and public usage of the park - Landscape and woodland management works - Successfully gaining Heritage Lottery funding for professional staff and project development

Developing a vision strategy for the park in the 21st century

The FoBP volunteers have now become employers with long term aims and ambitions – working in the heritage, environment, entertainment and tourism industries.

 

There is so much history to Beaumont Park! You can view many old images and postcards, and even the messages on them. More photos and information can be viewed in the park's Visitors Centre. There are some areas of the park that have been of greater significance in the past, such as the castle, the lake and gates. Further pages will evolve!