Bromley Millennium Rock, Betts Park (geograph 2402335)

Betts Park (also known as King George's Field) is a public park in

Penge Penge () is a suburb of South East London, England, now in the London Borough of Bromley, west of Bromley, north east of Croydon and south east of Charing Cross. History Penge was once a small hamlet, which was recorded under the name Pence ...

London Borough of Bromley The London Borough of Bromley () is the southeasternmost of the London boroughs that make up Greater London, bordering the ceremonial county of Kent, which most of Bromley was part of before 1965. The borough's population is an estimated 332,336 ...

, in

London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...

, England. It is approximately 13 acres (5 hectares) and has a number of attractions, including part of the old

Croydon Canal The Croydon Canal ran from Croydon, via Forest Hill, to the Grand Surrey Canal at New Cross in south London, England. It opened in 1809 and closed in 1836, the first canal to be abandoned by an Act of Parliament. History Authorised by an Act ...

. It was opened in December 1928 and extended throughout the 1930s.

Location

Betts Park is in the

Anerley Anerley () is an area of south east London, England, within the London Borough of Bromley. It is located south south-east of Charing Cross, to the south of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, west of Penge, north of Elmers End and South Norwood ...

area of

and is publicly owned. The park's main entrances are from Anerley Road. There are other entrances from Weighton Road, Seymour Villas, Croydon Road, and Betts Way.

History

The land where Betts Park now stands originally contained a semi-enclosed coppice on Penge Common known as Clay Copse. In 1827 the entire common was auctioned with lots sold for development. Residential houses and a church were erected encircling the coppice with the woodland divided into gardens, with the exception of a small area in the southeast corner believed to have contained the wagon home of Betty Saville, the last tenant of Penge Common, and an area in the southwest where tennis courts were built. The public park was initially created from a house and land on the north side of the park donated by Mr. Frederick Betts, a local property owner. The house, a Victorian villa known as Oak Lawn, became a public library and the gardens became recreation grounds. It was opened in December 1928 and named in memory of Frederick's late mother, Sarah Betts. Within a few years, Penge Urban District Council purchased additional land and the remains of the Croydon Canal. In June 1937 the park was further increased in size with the addition of land to the southeastern side by the King George's Fields Foundation memorial trust. The park is now legally protected from development by Deeds of Dedication from

Fields in Trust Fields in Trust, is a British charity set up in 1925 as the National Playing Fields Association (NPFA), by Brigadier-General Reginald Kentish and the Duke of York, later King George VI, who was the first president, which protects parks and green s ...

Betts Park contains one of the last remnants of the short-lived

, a Millennium Rock (a boulder of

Lewisian Gneiss The Lewisian complex or Lewisian gneiss is a suite of Precambrian metamorphic rocks that outcrop in the northwestern part of Scotland, forming part of the Hebridean Terrane and the North Atlantic Craton. These rocks are of Archaean and Paleoprote ...

gifted by the people of

Lochinver Lochinver (''Loch an Inbhir'' in Scottish Gaelic, Gaelic) is a village that is located at the head of the sea loch Loch Inver, on the coast in the Assynt district of Sutherland, Scottish Highlands, Highland, Scotland. A few miles northeast is Loc ...

in Scotland) and veteran holm oak believed to be a survivor of

Penge Common Penge Common was an area of north east Surrey and north west Kent which now forms part of London, England; covering most of Penge, all of Anerley, and parts of surrounding suburbs including South Norwood. It abutted the Great North Wood and John ...

. On 2 November 2017, Michael Jonas, a 17-year-old boy, was stabbed and killed in the park. On 12 July 2020 Dean Edwards was shot and killed at the Croydon Road entrance to the park. As at July 2022, neither crime has resulted in a successful prosecution. In the extreme heatwave of July 2022, the grass to the north of the park discoloured to reveal a ghost image of Oak Lawn villa, which had been demolished in the late 1960s.

Facilities

Facilities in the park now include a football pitch, an outdoor gym, basketball court, goal posts, skateboard area and children's play area. There is also a pre-school daycare centre for children in a former pavilion building.

Friends

London Borough of Bromley offers a scheme for locals to become a part of a friend group for the many parks. These groups are made up of volunteers who want to help discuss how the local parks are maintained, used, and developed. Betts Park is part of this scheme.

References

External links

Streetmap.co.uk

Virtual Penge

Penge forum

1928 establishments in England Parks and open spaces in the London Borough of Bromley {{London-geo-stub