Brookvale Park is located in the
Stockland Green
Stockland Green is an area of Birmingham, England.
It gives its name to a ward which is part of the Erdington formal district, and is located to the south-west of Erdington and north-east of Birmingham City Centre. The area is often mistakenly ...
Ward of
Erdington
Erdington is a suburb and ward of Birmingham in the West Midlands County, England. Historically part of Warwickshire and located northeast of central Birmingham, bordering Sutton Coldfield. It was also a council constituency, managed by its o ...
Constituency in England. The park surrounds
Brookvale Park Lake
Brookvale Park Lake previously known as Lower Witton Reservoir () is a former drinking water reservoir in the Erdington area of Birmingham, England.
Two brooks, arising at Kingstanding and Bleak Hill, Erdington, respectively, feed first Witton ...
. Within the park there is a bowling green, tennis courts, a children's play area and sailing club. Many local residents and groups take an active interest in the park and the lake.
History
In 1826 a waterworks company formed to supply water to the inhabitants of Birmingham and on 20 July 1856 the waterworks company acquired the Brookvale site from Wyrley Birch for £3,600. The site was then known as Lower Witton Reservoir.
Birmingham Corporation brought the waterworks company in 1876.
In 1894 Erdington became an
Urban District
Urban district may refer to:
* District
* Urban area
* Quarter (urban subdivision)
* Neighbourhood
Specific subdivisions in some countries:
* Urban districts of Denmark
* Urban districts of Germany
* Urban district (Great Britain and Ireland) (hist ...
Council and nine years later the Urban District Council purchased Rookery House as council offices and the land of the site soon became Erdington's first park.
On 7 October 1909 Brookvale Park officially opened and until 1926, Brookvale Park Lake was used as an open-air swimming pool operated by the Birmingham Baths Committee. The lakes and surrounding parkland are now maintained as a leisure amenity by
Birmingham City Council
Birmingham City Council is the local government body responsible for the governance of the City of Birmingham in England, which has been a metropolitan district since 1974. It is the most populated local council area in the United Kingdom (e ...
.
The Sons of Rest
The Sons of Rest is a social organisation that has provided leisure facilities for men of retirement age in and around Birmingham and the Black Country in the English West Midlands since 1927, and more recently for women.
The movement was esta ...
had a building in the park; it was destroyed by fire in October 2013
Future
A number of projects were due to take place over the summer of 2012 to improve the park and lake including:
*extending Swan island by 50%, using
gabion
A gabion (from Italian ''gabbione'' meaning "big cage"; from Italian ''gabbia'' and Latin ''cavea'' meaning "cage") is a cage, cylinder or box filled with rocks, concrete, or sometimes sand and soil for use in civil engineering, road building, ...
s and low-grade aggregate fill the gabions
*coppicing willow in the conservation area past the bridge and using the willow cuttings to reinforce Swan island, with local schools involved in making willow dens
*submitting a
Heritage Lottery Fund
The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom.
History
The fund's predecessor bodies were ...
grant application for funds to rebuild the boat house on the edge of Brookvale Lake, that burnt down in the 1970s.
Birmingham City Council granted approval for a charity called Free@last to start an inner-city canoe club on Brookvale Park Lake, an agreement was made with Brookvale Sailing Club to share their facilities.
References
External links
Birmingham City Council pageFriends of Brookvale Park
{{Authority control
Geography of Birmingham, West Midlands
Erdington
History of Birmingham, West Midlands