Identification and description | |||||||
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Name | Wellington Park | ||||||
Location |
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Localisation | Latitude: 50.978712 Longitude: -3.2351590 National Grid Reference: ST 13385 20649 Map: Download a full scale map (PDF) |
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Overview | Heritage Category: Park and Garden Grade: II* List Entry Number: 1001370 Date first listed: 13-May-1997 Date of most recent amendment: 21-Aug-2013 Statutory Address 1: Wellington Park, Taunton Deane |
In March 1902 a committee was appointed by Wellington Urban District Council to examine
ways in which land for the creation of a public park or recreation ground could be
obtained, in order that the town could provide a fitting memorial to the coronation
of King Edward VII. The site favoured for a park, adjacent to the Beech Grove west
of the town centre, was generally considered to be prime agricultural land and therefore
beyond the financial means of the rate payers (Wellington Weekly News 1903). However,
some ten days after this committee's initial meeting, the Urban District Council received
a letter from Joseph Fox of Messrs Fox Bros & Co, offering to donate to the town not
only 4 acres (c 1.6ha) of ground including the Beech Grove, but also to lay it out
at the company's expense as a public park. This benefaction was accepted by the Urban
District Council, and work on laying out the park began July 1902; an oak was planted
by Harry Fox, the young son of F Hugh Fox, on Coronation Day (ibid). Fox Bros appointed
Robert Veitch & Sons of Exeter to design and layout the park, the landscape scheme
being provided by F W Meyer (d 1906), landscape gardener to the nursery, who was also
responsible for designing parks at Devonport, Exeter and Poole (qv) (Gardeners' Chronicle
1906). The buildings for the park, including three entrances, a bandstand, and shelter,
were constructed by Messrs Follett Bros of Wellington, while the water supply and
ironwork were provided by Messrs Bishop Bros of Wellington. The park was opened to
the public at a ceremony held on 2 May 1903, and Messrs Fox indicated their intention
to provide an annual endowment of £100 for five years towards the upkeep of the park.
Mr Underdown, who had supervised the construction of the park on behalf of Robert
Veitch & Sons, took over as the first park keeper (Skeggs 1996). Meyer's plan for
the park, together with a descriptive account was published by the Gardeners' Chronicle
in August 1902; the park remains substantially unchanged today (2013).
The site donated to the town by Messrs Fox Bros included, on its north-east boundary,
a row of mature beech trees, after which the adjacent road was named Beech Grove.
It has been suggested that the trees and road mark the course of a former drive to
The Court, a C16 mansion which stands to the south-east of the park (Skeggs 1996).
The line of Beech Grove is shown on the Tithe map (c 1840), while the enclosure which
was to form the site for the park is marked as agricultural land on both the Tithe
map and the late C19 OS map (1887).
Messrs Fox Bros manufactured worsted cloth and was the principal employer in late
C19 Wellington. The company was owned by the Fox family, leading Quakers and noted
philanthropists. In 1921, as a thanks offering for peace after the First World War,
the company provided a further 5 acres (c 2ha) of land immediately south-west of the
park for the construction of a recreation ground (outside the area here registered).
The recreation ground was landscaped and provided with a shelter and clock. The need
for such a facility was particularly urgent as the terms under which the park had
been donated to the town prevented its use for games (Skeggs 1996).
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING Wellington Park is situated to the north-west
of the centre of the town of Wellington, at the edge of the urban area. The c 2ha
rectangular site falls gently to the north-west and is bounded to the north-east by
a retaining wall fronting onto Beech Grove, while to the south-east railings and a
belt of trees and shrubs separate it from Courtland Road. To the north-west the park
adjoins suburban housing. The south-west boundary is formed by a substantial stone-walled
ha-ha c 2.4m deep, which allows views from the park across the adjacent recreation
ground towards pasture on rising ground to the south-west. Steps at the northern end
of the ha-ha descend to the level of the playing field, while to the south the boundary
between the park and recreation ground is marked by metal railings. This open view
afforded by the use of the ha-ha was noted by the Gardeners' Chronicle (1902) as a
distinctive feature of the park's design.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES There are three entrances to the park, each marked by a roughcast,
clay-tiled archway and oak gates, erected, like the other park buildings, by the local
firm Messrs Follett Bros (Wellington Weekly News 1903). The north entrance is situated
on Beech Grove c 150m north-west of the junction of Beech Grove and Courtland Road.
This entrance leads directly to a broad straight walk which extends parallel to the
north-east boundary, linking it to a further entrance at the eastern corner of the
site adjacent to the junction of Beech Grove and Courtland Road. The principal entrance
is situated on Courtland Road at the southern corner of the park.
GARDENS AND PLEASURE GROUNDS Adjacent to the north entrance stands a drinking fountain
with a tiled basin, built in the same style as the entrance archways. This fountain
terminates a straight walk or promenade (formerly gravelled), c 6.4m wide, which leads
south-east to reach the eastern entrance. This walk is screened from Beech Grove by
a row of mature plane trees which replaces a row of twenty beech trees which pre-dated
the formation of the park. These beech trees apparently lined a walk leading north-west
from The Court to its walled kitchen garden which formerly adjoined the park to the
north-west (Tithe map, c 1840). Midway along the promenade walk, to the south-west,
is a flower garden enclosed by an elliptical fence of ivy grown on iron posts and
chains, with a central pool and fountain. The flower garden formed part of Meyer's
scheme for the park, but the present fountain replaces the original structure.
Near to the northern entrance, south-west of the drinking fountain, stands a lodge
bearing a plaque commemorating the gift of the park to the town by Messrs Fox Bros.
South-west of the lodge are public conveniences. At the western corner of the site
stands a bandstand of roughcast and clay-tiled construction like the other park buildings.
The glazed panels in its angled back wall have been filled-in and the turret which
originally surmounted it has been removed. To each side of the bandstand is a formal
arrangement of limes backed by a screen of evergreen shrubs. Further into the park,
to the east of the bandstand, is an informal pool fed by a waterfall and surrounded
by rockwork. The pool is crossed by a small wooden bridge. The bandstand, formal planting
of limes, and the pool all form part of Meyer's original scheme for the park (Gardeners'
Chronicle 1902).
A path from the principal, southern entrance leads to a covered seat set within an
arrangement of beds divided by walks. From this shelter further walks lead to the
eastern entrance, to the flower garden, and to the pool and bandstand. These walks
curve gently across lawns planted with specimen trees. A little to the north of the
shelter stands a war memorial erected in 1921, constructed from two monolithic blocks
of Cornish granite.
The layout of the park today corresponds closely to that published by the Gardeners'
Chronicle in 1902.
An early C20 public park laid out to the design of F W Meyer, landscape gardener to Robert Veitch and Sons of Exeter.
This garden or other land is registered under the Historic Buildings and Ancient Monuments Act 1953 within the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens by Historic England for its special historic interest.
Wellington Park, Somerset, opened in 1903, is designated at Grade II* for the following principal reasons: * Date: the park is a good example of an Edwardian park; * Design: the park’s design is essentially unchanged from its original layout of 1903; * Designer: the park was designed and laid out by laid out by F W Meyer, Robert Veitch’s landscape gardener; * Structures: the park retains various original structures and Wellington’s war memorial; * Planting: the park has good planting and mature trees.
Other
Gardeners' Chronicle, (1902), pp 154-5; ii (1906), p 120,
J Skeggs, The Wellington Park and Recreation Ground, 1996,
Souvenir Supplement, Wellington Weekly News, 6 May 1903,
Title: Tithe map for Wellington parish Source Date: 1840 Author: Publisher: Surveyor: