A Legacy from Newport's Victorian Era
A Legacy from Newport’s Victorian Era
by Mary Evans
by Mary Evans
Copyright Newport Museum and Art Gallery, Percy Scannel's archive, Ref. 1906, 96.469.1. Postcard dated 1906. For more postcards click here
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Access to green spaces
became a valued part of our lives during lockdown and public parks played a
major role in many areas. As I have been walking through Belle Vue Park and
Tredegar House Parkland over the past few months it has struck me how their reopening
during lockdown was carrying on the tradition of the public park movement of
the late 19th Century. Newport reopened its parks on the 18 May this year when
initially visitors were limited to a 5 mile radius. The oldest of its parks,
Belle Vue, is a legacy of the public park movement which was such a success in
the later part of the 19th Century and depended on funding from town and city
corporations across Britain.
In the early part of the Victorian
era access to public open green spaces would have been a dream for the majority
who lived and worked in the dire conditions of the rapidly growing
industrialised towns. That is until the 1830s when out of concern for the moral
and physical health of the population the public park movement began. Harriet
Jordan in the Garden History Journal explains the theory behind the movement
was that parks would make the working classes happier and therefore better
citizens. This movement reached its peak between 1885 and 1914 when more public
parks were built than at any other time before
or since.[1]
Copyright Mary Evans (M.E.) |
Copyright Christabel Hutchings |
Newport was no exception
to the aspiration to provide a public park for its population. Belle Vue Park
was opened in September 1894 at the cost of £19,500 on 23 acres of land
presented in 1891 to Newport Corporation by Godfrey, 2nd Lord Tredegar
(1831-1913). On his charger, Sir Briggs, he was one of Tennyson’s ‘six hundred’
who rode into ‘the valley of death’ and survived the ill-fated Charge of
the Light Brigade in 1854. Known locally as Godfrey the Good, he believed that
with great personal wealth came social obligation. He donated land for the
establishment of the Athletic Ground, (named Rodney Parade after his elder
brother Charles Rodney, heir apparent who died aged 25), the Free Library and
the Technical Institute. He not only benefitted Newport but endowed Cardiff
with many of its green spaces donating land for Cardiff Royal Infirmary, the
University College and £3000 towards the building of the Welsh National Museum
and Library. In 1909 he was presented with a portrait by the county of Monmouth
and awarded the freedom of both Cardiff and Newport. A statue of him on his war
horse Sir Briggs, by the Welsh artist Goscombe John still stands today in front of Cardiff City Hall.
A competition for the design of Belle
Vue Park was launched In1892 and 25 entries were received. Thomas Mawson (1861-1933),
who would become a world renowned English landscape architect, won the first
prize of £50. The design was Mawson's first win in an open competition and he would
go on to have numerous commissions in Britain, Europe and Canada. One of his most prestigious is the Gardens of
the Peace Palace in the Hague, home of the United Nations’ International Courts
of Justice. We are fortunate to see his work nearer to home, Belle Vue Park is the only public park in Wales
designed by Mawson. It now boasts a Blue Plaque to him and Lord Tredegar.
Belle Vue Park is not the only example of
Mawson’s work on our doorstep. Mawson also designed and constructed Dyffryn Gardens in 1906 for its owner the coal magnate
Reginald Cory. Dyffryn Gardens is considered to be the finest example of an Edwardian garden. As seen above the gardens feature a wealth of daffodils. In 2008 they received hundreds of specially
bred bulbs donated by the Netherlands to commemorate the centenary of Mawson’s
design of the Gardens of The Peace Palace in the Hague. The bulb was named the
Peace Daffodil and will be blooming at Dyffryn next Spring. Mawson’s influence
also inspired Lawrence Johnston who designed Hidcote, the world famous garden
in the Cotswolds also owned by the National Trust and is famous
for its series of outdoor rooms. Johnsons’s design was inspired by his visit to
Dyffryn Gardens and his reading of The
Art & Craft of Garden Making by Thomas H. Mawson.
During the height of the
Victorian public parks’ movement more attractions were provided such as music, sports
facilities and horticultural display to encourage people to visit the parks. Gwent historian Dr Wendy Taylor notes that Mawson’s design for Belle Vue Park included tennis
courts, beautiful walks, shrubbery and trees, a pavilion with terraces,
ornamental lodges, and stone steps. She also explains how much work this
construction provided for Newport’s unemployed who carried out the heavy manual
labour. [2].
The minutes from Newport County Borough Council Parks Committee
describe the pavilion, terraces and two conservatories as the dominating
features of Mawson’s design. [3] He added two decorative lodges
located at the Friars Road entrance and the other on Cardiff Road. No public
park was complete without a bandstand and one was added in November 1894 at the
cost of £238-16-10.
(M.E.) The Bandstand, June 2020 |
The present day bandstand is a replica of the original, said to have been recreated from archive photographs. Bowling greens were opened in 1904, tennis courts were constructed in 1907 and a rustic tea house added in 1910 in response to increased demand for refreshments. The minutes also record that Mrs Bevan provided the refreshments in the pavilion at a yearly tenancy of £10 per annum and was allowed to extend her service to the tea house for the additional rent of £5. In 2000 the tea house was given listed grade II status.
(M,E.) The Tea House, July 2020 |
A hundred years after it opened Belle Vue Park was in urgent need of repair due to general deterioration and vandalism. The Belle Vue conservation area was designated on 12 January 1976. In 1996 CADW gave the pavilion, conservatories and terracing Grade II listed status and extended this to the gates, gate piers, lodges and tea house in 2000. In 2002 the Heritage Lottery Fund awarded £1.5 million towards the restoration of Belle Vue Park and the new facilities were formally opened on 8 September 2006.
(M.E.) The Gorsedd Circle Belle Vue Park 2019 |
Newport is only a handful
of towns and cities to have two Gorsedd circles. One circle was erected in
Belle Vue Park ready for the Proclamation ceremony of 1896 and the Eisteddfod
which took place the following year. This was the first time the Eisteddfod
had taken place in Newport. The other circle was erected in Tredegar House
parkland where the Eisteddfod was held in 1988 and 2004.
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Tredegar House was the
ancestral home of the Morgans for over 500 years, and its 90 acres parkland was
bought by Newport Council in 1974 from the Sisters of St Joseph at Llantarnam
Abbey. They had purchased it in 1951 from the last Lord Tredegar to use as a Catholic
girls' boarding and day school. In 1967 St Joseph’s Roman Catholic High School
was established when the school at Tredegar House merged with two other Catholic
secondary schools in Newport. Phase 1 of a new building started in 1968, the
second in 1972 with the final phase completed in 1976.
The purchase of Tredegar
House by Newport Council rescued it from transformation into a conference
centre and sports complex, which was the initial offer considered by the
Sisters of St Joseph when they placed it on the market. At the time Newport
Council was criticised for wasting ratepayers’ money. Last month the Royal
Society of Architects in Wales (RSAW) in a youtube video hailed Tredegar House
as a Welsh masterpiece.Click below.
In 2012 Newport City Council transferred the management of the Tredegar House Estate to the National Trust on a 50 year lease.
(M.E.) Parkland, May 2020 |
Newport still owns the Mansion and formal gardens and the transferral to the National Trust stipulated
that the 90 acre parkland remained open for free access to the public. Consequently
the parkland was the only part of any Welsh National Trust property to give
access to the public when lockdown in Wales was eased on the 18 May. The formal
gardens reopened from the 2nd August with advance booking online.
Belle Vue Park was part of my childhood growing
up on the west side of Newport in the 1950s. I remember ice cream in the
pavilion, conservatories packed with exotic plants and monster ferns and brass
bands playing from the bandstand. One conservatory is now a café and the other
is a meeting room. Last summer you could have a cream tea on the Terrace and listen to a brass band
playing below in the bandstand.
(M.E.)The Pavilion and Terrace, July 2020
From the terrace there is a view over the Bristol Channel and when the trees are not in leaf you can see three of Newport’s five bridges. The nearest is the Transporter Bridge which was built on land donated by Godfrey, Lord Tredegar. Click here to see Lord Tredegar officially opening the Newport Transporter Bridge in 1906. In the bottom left of this picture is a glimpse of the Royal Gwent Hospital also built on land donated by Godfrey.
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The latest addition to the park is
the Friary Garden which opened in 2008.
(M.E.) The Friary Garden, May 2020 |
In 2008/09 John Woods, then the Park
Development Manager for Newport City Council, commented on Bellevue Park in 'The Bulletin' no. 53, published by The Welsh Historic Gardens Trust that:
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Sources
1. Jordan, Harriet. “Public Parks,
1885-1914.” Garden History, vol. 22, no. 1, 1994, pp. 85–113. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1587004.
2. A history of Newport's Belle Vue Park as it celebrates its 125th birthday. https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17874358.history-newport-39-s-belle-vue-park-celebrates 39-s-125th-birthday/
2. A history of Newport's Belle Vue Park as it celebrates its 125th birthday. https://www.southwalesargus.co.uk/news/17874358.history-newport-39-s-belle-vue-park-celebrates 39-s-125th-birthday/
3. Newport County Borough Council Parks and Cemeteries Committees
4. 'The restoration of Belle Vue Park, Newport' by John Woods, Park Development Manager, Newport City Council http://whgt.wales/documents/bulletin/bulletin53.pdf
See also Christabel Hutchings 'Welsh Artist William Goscombe John (1860-1952) in The Friends of National Museum Wales, Newsletter and Magazine p4. Click on link and scroll down. -http://friendsmuseumwales.org.uk/Magazine/2016%20April%20.pdf
Editors’ note: The Friends of
Newport Museum and Art Gallery have been planning a visit to Belle Vue Park
which has been postponed due to the lockdown but we hope to be able to plan a
visit for a limited number of members in the future.
In the meantime note that the Museum and Art Gallery are open on certain days to those who book. See http://www.newport.gov.uk/heritage/Museum--Art-Gallery/Visiting.aspx
In the meantime note that the Museum and Art Gallery are open on certain days to those who book. See http://www.newport.gov.uk/heritage/Museum--Art-Gallery/Visiting.aspx
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