October
2002
Darley Park - the history |
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| The
Terrace Garden at Darley Park |
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Darley
Park is a popular leisure facility in the city and is now home to
the annual open air concert. Located just minutes from the city centre,
it is easily accessible from the A38 and the A6. |
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What
is now the site of one of Derby’s most beautiful parks was in fact
once home to the county’s most important monastic institution: a house
of Augustinian Canons established in 1137 and dedicated to St Helena.
Over the centuries the land passed through many hands, reaching local
mill owners the Evans family by the early nineteenth century. Under
Walter Evans a red brick mansion was constructed on the site – Darley
House – surrounded by gardens and plantations.
Twenty
acres of these gardens were donated to the former Derby Corporation
in 1922, and during the next decade further additions of land were
made so that the park consisted of approximately eighty acres by the
time it was opened in June 1931.
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| Tranquility
in Darley Park |
Included
within this eighty acres was some land on the Derwent Bank Estate,
intended for use as a recreation ground. When work began on this area
to level the ground, a section of Roman road was uncovered, a length
of which was for a short time left open for exhibition.
The park was officially opened in June 1931 by the Duke of Kent.
Thousands of people went to the park to see the opening, including
over 4000 children.
Markeaton Park was also opened by the Duke later the same day.
Included with the park was a red brick Georgian mansion, which during
the Second World War housed the pupils of Derby School as an evacuation
measure to protect them from potential bombings.
Unfortunately, this building had to be demolished in the early 1960s
as it became too dangerous and the site was landscaped into the paved
garden we see today. Some of the bricks from the original mansion
were used to construct the pillars in the current garden.
 Darley
Park - today
More
Parks |
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| Contact
Us |
BBC Derby
PO Box 104.5
Derby
DE1 3HL
(+44) 01332 361111
derby@bbc.co.uk |
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