Woodthorpe Grange Park

 

Woodthorpe Grange was built by a Mr. Henry Ashwell in 1874 as a family residence, but the family did not enjoy it for very long, for in 1889 the Nottingham Suburban Railway was constructed and sliced the estate in half. It was subsequently sold to Edward Parry - the man who had designed the railway!  It was acquired by Nottingham City Council in 1921 and the house is presently the offices of the Council's Leisure Services Department.  I have only very vague recollections of this park from my childhood days in the 1940's but on my visit in 2007, the first for almost 60 years, I found it to be well maintained - especially the formal gardens, borders and golf course.  This is a substantial park that offers something for most age groups and on a sunny summer day (It was unfortunately dull during my visit), it would make an ideal destination for a family day out and picnic. In addition to the facilities and features shown in the photographs below, the park also has a children's amusement area.  The park is located to the north of the city on the Mansfield Road with its main entrance and car park on Woodthorpe Drive.
 I am also
informed that the park now has brand new toilet facilities plus a new cafe near to the children's play area

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The four images below were taken during a quick visit on the 9th August 2007.  The sun was shining this time and the formal gardens had matured and looked wonderful.
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The eight photographs below show the beautiful  floral displays for Summer 2008.  When I visited on this occasion, I was however very disappointed to find that Woodborough has now joined the ranks of The Arboretum and Victoria Memorial Gardens in having no working public toilets. They were locked and chained.  Another disappointment was The Dell Water Garden.  In June 2007 (See above) this looked reasonably well maintained, but it is now just a muddy mess with no water in the stream or pool. 

UPDATE  5th August 2008 :  I wrote to the Parks Department to express my concerns on the above issues and have today been advised that :

1. The closure of the toilets is the result of 'inappropriate' criminal behavior that is a risk to visitor safety and the parks department are actively looking at the possibility of a new development that will provide a small refreshments area and integral toilet facilities that can be monitored and regularly checked.
2. There are firm plans to invest in the Dell Garden to repair the water feature and improve the general level of horticultural interest. This will happen over the next 6 to 8 months weather permitting and pending the approval of a planting design for the area that is being worked on now.
3. There is an intention to improve the herbaceous borders throughout the park and through planned phased planting and restocking of the existing border network in the more formal areas of the park.

So - It seems that this years problems are hopefully only temporary and that this park will soon re-join the ranks of Nottingham Parks 1st Division.  However visitors should not expect new toilets to be available in the immediate future  They will, if approved, obviously take some  time to construct and in the meantime the absence of such basic facilities should be taken into consideration by visitors. 

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The four images below were taken during a quick visit on the 1st July 2009.  The sun was shining and the formal gardens looked beautiful, though I did feel that the main one was not as good as previous years because of the need for some height in the planting. The herbaceous border looked lovely and whist the Dell Garden has been cleaned up it was disappointing to find it almost dry with no water in the cascade.  Another disappointment was the continued absence of the public toilets which remain locked.
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UPDATE 2016 - I am informed that the park now has brand new toilet facilities plus a new cafe near to the children's play area.
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