Richmond Park

[barbaram]

hello (Puffin 4) Mike thanks for the post

 

glad to hear that your home, its nice to hear a family's view of richmond park it still is mainly just a field but the friends of group is working on that !!!. We are hoping to have a display of the master plan of the parks future at a funday in July. we are also trying to get together a presentation of memories and photos of the parks past , photos are seemingly difficult to locate, but everyone has memories from first kisses to the glider landing there in the mid 60's

 

Barbaram

[devlin]

I was born just off Richmond Road in 61. From being allowed out on our own my friends and I always headed for the park it was lovely back then in the early 70's.

 

The play equipment if I remember was upgraded around that time. There was a lovely clean drinking fountain, free access to tennis, a warm welcome to watch the usually elderly bowlers, clean toilets and nearly always cricket on summer days / evenings.

 

I don't know if my memory is playing tricks but I am sure there was once a small pitch and put to the right of the playground as you faced down looking at City School.

 

At the top of the park you could walk through the hedging to the backs of the houses up on Richmond Road and there was small scale stabling and paddock in which there used to be 2 ponies belonging to the Davis family.

Dennis Davis was a scrap merchant I think, they lived in the house on Richmond Road (opposite the end of Audrey Road) that was painted green.

 

The park in those days was a serious venue during the summer, it was not unusal for the park to be packed, not just with children playing but with local families picknicking etc. The park keeper even used to help them fill up their own paddling pools with buckets of water from where you used to get the tennis /bowling equipment from on summer days.

 

As I got older the park was our short cut to school, under-foot conditions permitting, as a stroll through the park and the cornfield at the end was much nicer than the walk down both Richmond and Stradbrook Road to school.

 

If the conditions were bad we would walk as far as the path allowed and then cut up Richmond Hill Road, where we would often see Dennis Hobson knocking seven bells out of his punch bag in their garage. They lived in the very top house on the corner of Richmond Hill and Stradbrook. Not surprised he has become a sucessful boxing promoter / trainer etc...

 

It is sad that the park is now run down and therefore not as usable, but if we are honest this is not unique is it? I don't know when we were kids we saw a park as a resource to be used, but cared for so that we could keep using it..... these days they just seem to be a haven for people to be anti-social and destructive.

 

Lots of people blame the authorities for lack of investment but in reality they do not have bottomless pits of money, if people cared for and looked after their resources like we used to, things might soon start looking better again.

[slimsid2000]

Hi,

 

As a member of the Friends of Richmond Park, i am researching the history and personal recollections of Richmond Park.

 

If anyone has any stories or photographs these would be much appreciated, and help us build a picture of the history of the park and surrounding area.

 

Many thanks

Babsy

 

It's in Surrey.

[soft ayperth]

As recorded by my sister Silly, I was in Papworth Hospital for heart surgery for two months but came home yesterday.

Like all of you, I have fond memories of Richmond Park, where I used to play as a child during the war (1939-45). It wasn't much more than a field then and about two thirds of it had been turned into corn fields by the war ag, I remember watching the reaping and threshing with a traction engine; all very exciting. I lived on Richmond Hill Road, actually I was born there in 1939 but moved away to join the RAF in 1959.

Will contribute more at a later date but still feel a bit grim at the moment.

 

Mike

 

Good luck, speedy recovery, Mike. Your memories of the park preceded mine. I was born '43, moved to the Stradbroke estate in 51, so the cornfield days of RP had passed and as I stated in an earlier attachment I remember the park in the 50s and 60s, its glory days. I do remember wheat fields near where I lived on the Stradbroke estate. You had to cross them to get to Smelter Wood. I think they've built an ugly big highway there now.

[dublugee]

Back in the 50s and 60s Richmond Park was the home ground of

Woodhouse St Paul's Methodist church cricket team in the Norton

League. There must be ex-players with memories of derring-do at

the wicket.

[jaypen]

It's in Surrey.

No its in richmond SHEFFIELD 13:loopy:. I know cos I live on the same road. Richmond Park is probably the most underated natural park

in Sheffield. You can walk for miles without crossing any major roads, including the TPT and Shirebrook Valley.

[jinx81]

....................

[barbaram]

Hi Jaypen

Its good to know someone is positive about our park it is a very beautiful greenspace and not used to its full potential if only our park could have good paths like the TPT.I am not having much luck on the photo front ,and no one has mentioned the light aircraft ,glider that landed in 65ish or even more recently the hot air balloon that landed in the park

 

barbaram

[Puffin4]

More memories of Richmond Park

 

Before it was developed, the entrance at the bottom of Richmond Hill Road was down a bank, over the stream and up the other side of the bank. The park keeper's (Alec Winterbottom) house was not there then but the toilets have been there for as long as I can remember (about 65 years when I would have been 5).

 

I remember coming home from school one evening to see a load of earth moving equipment standing behind the parkie's house, bearing the name En Tout Cas; that was the beginning of the development of the bowling green and tennis courts. This was the first time I had encountered bulldozers and scrapers at close range. This must have been when they were building the Stradbroke estate as the house is similar in character.

 

I remember that there was an allotment field at the top of the park bordering onto the rubbish tip which I think was formerly a quarry.

 

If you followed the stream down the park, it ran into the cow pond which was situated largely in the cow field or cow flop as we used to call it. Kids frequently dammed the stream to make minor ponds.

 

During the war, the large pavilion stood on the land which had been turned over to agriculture, as did the cricket square. They did not violate the square but when the land was eventually returned to the park, it was of little use and had to be returfed.

 

I remember a light aircraft landing in the park in the early 50's, running up to the allotments. It stood there for a couple of days and to the best of my knowledge, no one approached it. That would not happen nowadays.

 

I remember that Mrs Vipond used to access her kiosk via a step ladder which she used to put over her garden fence (She lived on Mason Crescent)

 

More at a later date if my memory holds out.

 

Mike

[barbaram]

Hi Mike

 

Hope your recovering well.

I did not know about this light airplane only the one in aprox 65 ,I was told about this by someone iwent to school with and we are almost 50 your memories are much appreciated,the allotments are still there , and are well tended,they are even doing a stall on fun day selling there crop!

Do you remember the red hills you wouldn,t recognise them,first they became landfill then they landscaped them ,now its arealy nice green space

keep the memories coming they are much apreciated

thanks barbara