Riversley Park is an

urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a municipal park (North America) or a public park, public open space, or municipal gardens ( UK), is a park in cities and other incorporated places that offer recreation and green space to resi ...

Nuneaton Nuneaton ( ) is a market town in the borough of Nuneaton and Bedworth in northern Warwickshire, England, close to the county border with Leicestershire and West Midlands County.OS Explorer Map 232 : Nuneaton & Tamworth: (1:25 000) : Nuneaton's ...

Warwickshire Warwickshire (; abbreviated Warks) is a county in the West Midlands region of England. The county town is Warwick, and the largest town is Nuneaton. The county is famous for being the birthplace of William Shakespeare at Stratford-upon-Avon an ...

, England, which covers an area of and is located immediately to the south of the town centre, with the

River Anker The River Anker is a river in England that flows through the centre of Nuneaton. It is a major tributary of the River Tame, which it joins in Tamworth. The name of the river derives from an old British term for ''winding river''. From source t ...

flowing through it.

History

The park was opened on 6 July 1907 on land donated by a local benefactor

Edward Melly Edward is an English given name. It is derived from the Anglo-Saxon name ''Ēadweard'', composed of the elements '' ēad'' "wealth, fortune; prosperous" and '' weard'' "guardian, protector”. History The name Edward was very popular in Anglo-Sax ...

(1857-1941), and was named after Melly's family home in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

Features

A 2003 artwork, '' Gold Belt'', by

Alisha Miller Alisha (Arabic: علیشا Romanized: 'Alīshā) is cognate of the female given name Alicia, a variant of Alice, which comes from the Old English name Æthelhādas or Æðelhādas, meaning "noble natured" (noble of kind). Variant forms used by no ...

, is located in a walkway underneath Vicarage Road bridge, which links the park to the George Eliot Memorial Gardens.

Museum and Art Gallery

Edward Melly also donated £600 towards the construction of the

Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery Nuneaton Museum & Art Gallery is set in the grounds of Riversley Park, Nuneaton, England, and has three galleries which house regularly changing temporary and touring exhibitions. There is a gallery dedicated to the writer George Eliot, togethe ...

in the park, which was begun in 1914, and was completed in 1917.

War memorials

Within the park is a memorial to soldiers killed in the

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 Sou ...

(1899-1902) which consists of a bronze statue of a soldier on a

granite Granite () is a coarse-grained (phaneritic) intrusive igneous rock composed mostly of quartz, alkali feldspar, and plagioclase. It forms from magma with a high content of silica and alkali metal oxides that slowly cools and solidifies undergro ...

plinth. This was first created in 1905, and was originally located in Bond Gate in the town centre, but was moved to the park in 1967. In 2006 the original statue was stolen, and it was replaced by an identical one in 2008. The memorial 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 ...

. South of this there is also a war memorial which was first erected in 1920 to commemorate soldiers who were lost in the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

, with a later dedication to those lost in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The memorial consists of a granite

Celtic Cross The Celtic cross is a form of Christian cross featuring a nimbus or ring that emerged in Ireland, France and Great Britain in the Early Middle Ages. A type of ringed cross, it became widespread through its use in the stone high crosses er ...

, which is also grade II listed.

Play area

The park also contains a children's play area containing a pyramid tower, climbing frames, slides and a water feature. The current play area was opened in 2010, replacing an earlier one, and was named in honour of Louis Carter, a local soldier who was killed in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

at the age of 18 in 2009.

Junior parkrun

Each Sunday morning at 9am a free, fully marshalled, timed two kilometre run/walk, open to children aged 4-14, takes place in the park, starting near the bandstand.

Gallery

File:Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery, 6.19.jpg, Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery File:Boer War Memorial Statue - Riversley Park - Nuneaton (17881323166).jpg, Boer War memorial statue and war memorial cross. File:River Anker, Riversley Park, Nuneaton.jpg, The River Anker, flowing through the park.

References

{{coord, 52.519546, -1.465579, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Parks and open spaces in Warwickshire Nuneaton Urban public parks in the United Kingdom