Bowling Park, Bradford
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Bowling Park is a public
urban park An urban park or metropolitan park, also known as a city park, municipal park (North America), public park, public open space, or municipal gardens (United Kingdom, UK), is a park or botanical garden in cities, densely populated suburbia and oth ...
near Bolling Hall in
Bradford Bradford is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in West Yorkshire, England. It became a municipal borough in 1847, received a city charter in 1897 and, since the Local Government Act 1972, 1974 reform, the city status in the United Kingdo ...
,
West Yorkshire West Yorkshire is a Metropolitan counties of England, metropolitan and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in the Yorkshire and the Humber region of England. It borders North Yorkshire to the north and east, South Yorkshire and De ...
, England about south south east from the city centre. The park is irregularly shaped with an area of and is bounded by Bowling Hall Road, Burras Road, Bowling Memorial Cemetery, Parkside Road, Avenue Road, Bowling Park Allotments and Bowling Park Drive (formerly New Hey Road). The park is grade II listed with
English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...
on their Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England and is owned by the
City of Bradford Bradford (), also known as the City of Bradford, is a metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. It is named after its largest settlement, Bradford, but covers a larger area which includes the towns and villages of Keighley, Shipley, Wes ...
.


History

In the late 1870s
Bradford Council City of Bradford Metropolitan District Council is the Local government in England, local authority of the City of Bradford in West Yorkshire, England. Bradford has had an elected council since 1847, which has been reformed on several occasions. ...
purchased large areas of land for the park, including part of the former grounds of
Bolling Hall, Bradford Bolling Hall is one of the oldest buildings in Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. It is currently used as a museum and education centre. The building is about a mile from the centre of Bradford in East Bowling. Its surroundings are suburban in c ...
. Earlier in the 19th century part of this land had been mined for coal and
ironstone Ironstone is a sedimentary rock, either deposited directly as a ferruginous sediment or created by chemical replacement, that contains a substantial proportion of an iron ore compound from which iron (Fe) can be smelted commercially. Not to be c ...
. In 1878 competitive plans were invited for the design of the park and later that year the plans by Kershaw and Hepworth of
Brighouse Brighouse (, locally also ) is a town within the metropolitan borough of Calderdale, in West Yorkshire, England. Historic counties of England, Historically within the West Riding of Yorkshire, it is situated on the River Calder, West Y ...
were accepted. The park was created between the years 1878 and 1880 and subsequently opened in 1880 by Angus Holden. The design of the created park however, differed significantly from the Kershaw and Hepworth plans. The Kershaw and Hepworth plans show a
croquet Croquet ( or ) is a sport which involves hitting wooden, plastic, or composite balls with a mallet through hoops (often called Wicket, "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court. Variations In all forms of croquet, in ...
lawn, a cricket ground and a large reservoir bordering the park in the east but none of these were ever constructed. In the 20th century various ponds in the park were filled in so that none remain today, and an area in the south-east of the park laid out for golf. Bowling greens, tennis courts and a second promenade were added in the 1920s. A free, weekly timed 5km parkrun is held at 9am every Saturday.


Landmarks

The main carriage entrance is in the north-east on Bowling Hall Road at Lister Avenue. There is a second similar entrance in the north-west on Bowling Park Drive—both entrances having two-storey lodges. In the west, there is another entrance from West Bowling with a tree-lined embankment approach. Running through the park is a serpentine carriageway within which are a series of interlinked curving paths that together with shrubs and trees enclose a series of irregularly shaped zones. The site slopes down to the north west making it suitable for
toboggan A toboggan is a simple sled used in snowy winter recreation. It is also a traditional form of cargo transport used by the Innu, Cree and Ojibwe of North America, sometimes part of a dog train. It is used on snow to carry one or more people (o ...
ing in winter. There is a fenced off children's play area, a youth cafe, a multiactivities area,
crown green bowling Crown green bowls (or crown green) is a code of bowls played outdoors on a grass or artificial turf surface known as a bowling green. The sport's name is derived from the intentionally convex or uneven nature of the bowling green which is tradi ...
greens operated by the bowling club, and a pitch and putt course created in 1924. Elsewhere in the park are the base and roots of a fossilised tree. Friends Of Bowling Park is a voluntary organization who organize community fundays in the summer, and help keep the park free of litter, and along with Bradford Bees
YMCA YMCA, sometimes regionally called the Y, is a worldwide youth organisation based in Geneva, Switzerland, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 120 countries. It has nearly 90,000 staff, some 920,000 volunteers and 12,000 branches w ...
have helped establish Bowling Park Community Orchard.


Access

Entry is free and the park is open to the public at all times. In the event of bad weather visitors have the option of going to Bolling Hall and Museum to the northeast on the other side of Bowling Hall Road. First Bradford 634 from Bradford Interchange every half-hour, 620 also half-hourly in the evenings.


Gallery


References


External links


Friends of Bowling Park
* Bowling Park Community Orchard
Bowling Park Community Orchard
* Documents
Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest
Historic
Original park designs of Kershaw and Hepworth
* Historic images
Floral CenotaphFloral Grand Piano (1923)
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Broomfields Broomfields is a hamlet in Shropshire, England. It is located north of Montford Bridge and near to the hamlets of Forton Heath and Grafton. It is in the parish of Montford. It used to have its own 7 1/4 gauge garden railway at Broomfields Vi ...
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