Cannon Hill Park is a

park A park is an area of natural, semi-natural or planted space set aside for human enjoyment and recreation or for the protection of wildlife or natural habitats. Urban parks are urban green space, green spaces set aside for recreation inside t ...

located in south

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It is the most popular park in the city, covering consisting of formal, conservation, woodland and sports areas. Recreational activities at the park include boating, fishing, bowls, tennis, putting and picnic areas. It also contains

Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park Birmingham Wildlife Conservation Park, formerly Birmingham Nature Centre, and before that Birmingham Zoo, is a small zoo on the edge of Cannon Hill Park in Birmingham, England. It is owned and managed by Birmingham City Council. As well as cate ...

, the '' mac'' theatre, and adjacent to the park is

Edgbaston Cricket Ground Edgbaston Cricket Ground, also known as the County Ground or Edgbaston Stadium, is a cricket ground in the Edgbaston area of Birmingham, England. It is home to Warwickshire County Cricket Club and its T20 team Birmingham Bears. Edgbaston has ...

History

On 18 April 1873, a local benefactor, Miss Louisa Ann Ryland (1814–89) of Barford Hill House, Warwickshire, gave just over of meadow land, known as Cannon Hill Fields, to the Corporation and paid for the draining of the site to create a public park. J.T Gibson of

Battersea Battersea is a large district in south London, part of the London Borough of Wandsworth, England. It is centred southwest of Charing Cross and extends along the south bank of the River Thames. It includes the Battersea Park. History Batter ...

was employed to transform the site. He constructed two large lakes, the smaller ornamental ponds and a bathing pool. 35 acres were devoted to ornamental gardens and shrub borders.

Kew Gardens Kew Gardens is a botanical garden, botanic garden in southwest London that houses the "largest and most diverse botany, botanical and mycology, mycological collections in the world". Founded in 1840, from the exotic garden at Kew Park, its li ...

donated seeds and plants to establish the collection, this collection was used by students to enable them to study

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

. It opened to the public in September 1873. A further were given by the brewer John Holder in 1897, and in 1898 were acquired to straighten the

River Rea The River Rea (pronounced "ray") is a small river which passes through Birmingham, England. It is the river on which Birmingham was founded by the Beorma tribe in the 7th century. Since 2012, TA Media had obtained the rights and access to th ...

, which is now

culvert A culvert is a structure that channels water past an obstacle or to a subterranean waterway. Typically embedded so as to be surrounded by soil, a culvert may be made from a pipe, reinforced concrete or other material. In the United Kingdom ...

ed and runs along the western edge.

Features

A 1906 granite and bronze

memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

to the dead of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

Albert Toft Albert Toft (3 June 1862 – 18 December 1949) was a British Sculpture, sculptor. Toft's career was dominated by public commemorative commissions in bronze, mostly single statues of military or royal figures. The Diamond Jubilee of Queen V ...

, stands on the western edge of the park.

Grade II* In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

listed, it was refurbished in 2012. In 1911 a 16th-century timbered house was moved from

Deritend Deritend is a historic area of Birmingham, England, built around a crossing point of the River Rea. It is first mentioned in 1276. Today Deritend is usually considered to be part of Digbeth. History Deritend was a crossing point of the River R ...

and re-erected in the park by the Birmingham Archaeological Society, to serve as a refreshment room and cricket pavilion. Named the ''Golden Lion Inn'' it is a Grade II

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

but is now in a very poor state of repair and fenced-off. The bandstand, the bridge over the lake ('Red Carriage Bridge'), and Cannon Hill House are also Grade II Listed. Another memorial, unveiled on 27 July 1924, commemorates Scouts who fell in the First and (by later inscription) Second World Wars. It is in concrete, and was designed by the architect William Haywood. Elan Valley mac model

A scale model of the

Elan Valley Reservoirs The Elan Valley Reservoirs are a chain of man-made lakes created from damming the Elan and Claerwen rivers within the Elan Valley in Mid Wales. The reservoirs, which were built by the Birmingham Corporation Water Department, provide clean dri ...

, in the form of ornamental ponds, is located in a

Japanese garden are traditional gardens whose designs are accompanied by Japanese aesthetics and philosophical ideas, avoid artificial ornamentation, and highlight the natural landscape. Plants and worn, aged materials are generally used by Japanese garden desig ...

near the ''mac''. It was built in the 1960s. On 4 March 2019, a memorial to the British victim of the 2015

Bardo National Museum attack On 18 March 2015, two militants attacked the Bardo National Museum in the Tunisian capital city of Tunis, and took hostages. Twenty-one people, mostly European tourists, were killed at the scene, and an additional victim died ten days later. Aro ...

, and 30 British victims of the

2015 Sousse attacks On 26 June 2015, a mass shooting occurred at the tourist resort at Port El Kantaoui, about 10 kilometres north of the city of Sousse, Tunisia. Thirty-eight people, 30 of whom were British, were killed when a gunman, Seifeddine Rezgui, attacked a ...

, in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

, was unveiled by

Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, (Henry Charles Albert David; born 15 September 1984) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger son of Charles III and his first wife Diana, Princess of Wales. He is fifth in the line of succe ...

. The memorial is called '' Infinite Wave''.

Events

A free 5 kilometre

parkrun Parkrun (stylised as parkrun) is a collection of events for walkers, runners and volunteers that take place every Saturday morning at more than 2,000 locations in 23 countries across six continents. Junior Parkrun (stylised as junior parkrun) ...

running event is held in the park every Saturday morning at 9am and usually attracts over 750 runners each week. A free 2 kilometre junior parkrun event for children aged between 4 and 14 takes place at 9am on Sunday mornings. The Great Birmingham 10k and

Great Birmingham Run The Great Birmingham Run is an annual half marathon road running event held in Birmingham, UK in October. Formerly known as the Birmingham Half Marathon, from 2011 it became part of the Great Run series of road races. Established in 2008, it in ...

half-marathon events also pass through the park.

References

External links

Birmingham City Council - Cannon Hill Park
* * * * Blue plaque Louisa Ryland

{{Birmingham parks Grade II listed buildings in Birmingham Parks and open spaces in Birmingham, West Midlands 1873 establishments in England