Hillfield Gardens is a public park on London Road, Gloucester, England. It houses several historical monuments. The description in December 2020 stated: "Now a Council-owned public park covering about 1.6 hectares, Highfield Gardens is supported by an active Friends group which organises annual events".

History

The gardens were originally part of

Hillfield House Hillfield House is a grade II listed house in Denmark Road, Gloucester, in England. The building, in the Italianate style popularised by Charles Barry, is faced in ashlar Bath stone, with a centrally placed tower and a porte-cochère entrance. ...

, a Victorian house now owned by Gloucestershire County Council, built between 1867 and 1869. This replaced an older house built in 1826 which was known as Woodbine Hill which is also an alternative name for the gardens. The gardens were opened in 1933. The friends group which have managed the gardens since 2005, obtained the £50,000 grant from the National Lottery Community Spaces Program in 2013. This money was used to create add a sensory garden and a woodland walk area to Hillfield Gardens. Additionally a sculpture made by school children from Denmark Road school. The garden contains 3 mature redwood trees and a large oak tree which are among the oldest trees in Gloucester. A BBC article from August 2013 discussed the restoration of the entrance to Hillfield Gardens: "cleaned and repaired the stone piers supporting the gates, and new balustrading was fitted. The metal gates were also cleaned, repaired and repainted".

Entrance Gates

The entrance gates to the gardens are

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 ...

. They were formally the entrance to the grounds of Hillfield House and are accessible from London Road. The gates are made up of 5

Ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...

stone pillars supporting a pair of wrought iron gates for vehicles, and a single wrought iron gate to the right hand side for pedestrians. The pillars have moulded bases, a recessed panel on each side, and moulded cornices and capstones. Railings with short pillars topped with moulded copings link the main pillars. The lower half of the iron gates are decorated with circular patterns, and the top half has vertical poles decorated with finials. A short length of solid stone railing links the far right hand pier with the

gate lodge A gatekeeper's lodge or gate lodge is a small, often decorative building, situated at the entrance to the estate of a mansion or country house. Originally intended as the office and accommodation for a gatekeeper who was employed by the landown ...

. In 2013, The gates were renovated, costing £14,000. The stone pillars were cleaned and repaired and new railings were fitted. The iron gates were cleaned, repaired and repainted.

St Mary Magdalen's chapel

Remains of St Mary Magdalene chapel-geograph

There is a disused chapel located on the east side of the park, It is a Grade II* listed building. It is the chancel of the Leper's hospital chapel founded around the 12th century, the rest of the hospital stood on the opposite side of London Road. There are many carvings on the walls of the chapel which may have been made by pilgrims which may represent various saints days or religious festivals. The symbols include a

fleur-de-lys The fleur-de-lis, also spelled fleur-de-lys (plural ''fleurs-de-lis'' or ''fleurs-de-lys''), is a lily (in French, and mean 'flower' and 'lily' respectively) that is used as a decorative design or symbol. The fleur-de-lis has been used in the ...

, a star of

epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

, symbols representing the Feast of the Cross, the feast of

St Valentine Saint Valentine ( it, San Valentino; la, Valentinus) was a 3rd-century Roman saint, commemorated in Western Christianity on February 14 and in Eastern Orthodoxy on July 6. From the High Middle Ages, his Saints' Day has been associated with a ...

and

All Saints' Day All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows' Day, the Feast of All Saints, the Feast of All Hallows, the Solemnity of All Saints, and Hallowmas, is a Christian solemnity celebrated in honour of all the saints of the church, whether they are know ...

. The

nave The nave () is the central part of a church, stretching from the (normally western) main entrance or rear wall, to the transepts, or in a church without transepts, to the chancel. When a church contains side aisles, as in a basilica-type ...

of the chapel was demolished in 1861. At this time the south and west doorways were taken down and reassembled in the chancel. The south doorway has flowers and rosettes carved into it, with cable and pellet symbols. There is a life-sized 13th-century effigy of

Kyneburga Kyneburga, Kyneswide and Tibba were female members of the Mercian royal family in 7th century England who were venerated as saints. Kyneburga and Kyneswide Kyneburga (d. c. 680) (also called Cyneburh in Old English); the name being also rendere ...

, a

Saxon The Saxons ( la, Saxones, german: Sachsen, ang, Seaxan, osx, Sahson, nds, Sassen, nl, Saksen) were a group of Germanic * * * * peoples whose name was given in the early Middle Ages to a large country (Old Saxony, la, Saxonia) near the Nor ...

princess.

King's Board

The King's Board is a small Grade II* listed

decagonal In geometry, a decagon (from the Greek δέκα ''déka'' and γωνία ''gonía,'' "ten angles") is a ten-sided polygon or 10-gon.. The total sum of the interior angles of a simple decagon is 1440°. A self-intersecting ''regular decagon'' i ...

building. It is made of moulded Ashlar stone with detailed carvings, and a flat composition roof. It has 10 sides, and sits upon a solid stone base. There is an open arcade of five bays on the south side, a solid wall of plain Ashlar on the north side, and three stone steps in a semi-circle which stop against short

wing walls A wing wall (also "wingwall" or "wing-wall") is a smaller wall attached or next to a larger wall or structure. Bridges In a bridge, the wing walls are adjacent to the abutments and act as retaining walls. They are generally constructed of the same ...

on the east and west sides. It was built around the 18th century, in the grounds of Marybone House. Its arcades and architectural details are said to come from a 14th Century Medieval market house in Westgate Street called the King's Board which was demolished in 1780. The building was moved in the mid 19th century to the grounds of

Tibberton Court Tibberton may refer to: *Tibberton, Gloucestershire *Tibberton, Shropshire *Tibberton, Worcestershire Tibberton is a village in Worcestershire, England. It is located around 4 miles north-east of Worcester and less than a mile from junction 6 of ...

. In 1936, the monument was moved to its current location in Hillfield Gardens.

Scrivens Conduit

Scrivens Conduit is an elaborate Grade II* listed carved stone structure. It is made of Ashlar

Limestone Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...

from Painswick. It is carved and moulded in Jacobean style with

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

and

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

influence. It was originally built in 1636, for Alderman John Scriven in Southgate Street as a

conduit Conduit may refer to: Engineering systems * Conduit (fluid conveyance), a pipe suitable for carrying either open-channel or pressurized liquids * Electrical conduit, a protective cover, tube or piping system for electric cables * Conduit curre ...

head over a piped water supply running from

Robinswood Hill Robinswood Hill () is a hill and country park to the south of the city centre of Gloucester, close to the Stroud Road (A4173). It rises to 650 ft (198 m), and is owned and managed by Gloucester City Council's Countryside Unit. The Glouces ...

to the centre of Gloucester. It was removed in 1784 and rebuilt in a garden in Dog Lane. In the 1830s, the conduit head was moved to Edgeworth Manor. In 1937, it was given to the city of Gloucester and rebuilt in Hillfield Gardens.

References

{{Buildings and structures in Gloucester Grade II* listed buildings in Gloucestershire Grade II listed buildings in Gloucestershire Gardens in Gloucestershire Parks and open spaces in Gloucestershire