The Recreation Ground is a public park in

Swanage Swanage () is a coastal town and civil parish in the south east of Dorset, England. It is at the eastern end of the Isle of Purbeck and one of its two towns, approximately south of Poole and east of Dorchester. In the 2011 census the civil ...

, Dorset. It was acquired prior to WWI, but only properly established in the 1920s.

History

The land which is now the recreation ground was previously occupied by Eastbrook Farm. Although acquired before WWI, it was only after the War that it was turned into the recreation ground, with the war memorial being unveiled in 1920 and the bandstand installed in 1923. As originally laid out, the recreation ground also included tennis courts and a bowling green.

Bandstand

The bandstand was installed in 1923, in a sunken location to assist with acoustics in the open air. It was made by Scottish cast iron manufacturers, Walter Macfarlane & Co, to a design known as a MacFarlane 224. It is one of only four surviving MacFarlane 224s, the other three being in the Royal Pump Room Gardens in

Leamington Spa Royal Leamington Spa, commonly known as Leamington Spa or simply Leamington (), is a spa town and civil parish in Warwickshire, England. Originally a small village called Leamington Priors, it grew into a spa town in the 18th century following ...

, Fassnidge Park in Uxbridge and the Vine Cricket Ground in Sevenoaks. Following storm damage in 2012, the roof was removed. It was restored in 2019 by Lost Art Limited, and the original

finial A finial (from '' la, finis'', end) or hip-knob is an element marking the top or end of some object, often formed to be a decorative feature. In architecture, it is a small decorative device, employed to emphasize the Apex (geometry), apex of a d ...

was reinstated. The Swanage Town Band perform concerts at the bandstand. There is a Friends of Swanage Bandstand group.

War Memorial

The war memorial was erected in 1920, and relocated within the recreation ground in 2014 in order to reduce the risk of it collapsing in a landslip. It is constructed from Purbeck stone and is

Grade II listed 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 ...

. It is in the form of a tapering

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehis ...

. In addition to listing the war dead, the war memorial also lists civilians killed by enemy bombs in the town in WWII.

Trevor Chadwick

Trevor Chadwick Trevor Chadwick (22April 190723December 1979) was a British humanitarian who was involved in the ''Kindertransport'' to rescue Jewish and other refugee children in Czechoslovakia in 1938–1939 before World War II. After the Munich Agreement Naz ...

was a schoolteacher in Swanage who, working with Sir Nicholas Winton, was responsible for rescuing 669 children from Prague on the '' kindertransport''. As part of the objective of the Trevor Chadwick Memorial Trust to perpetuate the memory of Chadwick's work, the children's playground in the recreation ground has been renamed the Chadwick children's playground. A bronze sculpture of Chadwick with two children by local sculptor Moira Purver has been designed and will shortly (2021) be cast and then installed in the recreation ground.

References

{{coord , 50.610965, -1.9585812, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Isle of Purbeck Environment of Dorset Swanage Parks and open spaces in Dorset 1920 establishments in the United Kingdom