Queens Park is a public park in

Burnley Burnley () is a town and the administrative centre of the wider Borough of Burnley in Lancashire, England, with a 2021 population of 78,266. It is north of Manchester and east of Preston, at the confluence of the River Calder and River B ...

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated ''Lancs'') is a ceremonial county in North West England. It is bordered by Cumbria to the north, North Yorkshire and West Yorkshire to the east, Greater Manchester and Merseyside to the south, and the Irish Sea to ...

. It covers 11.2 hectares and was opened in 1893, making it Burnley's oldest park. Located approximately 1 km northeast of the town centre, attractions include a skate park, tennis courts, a children's play area, a bandstand, football pitches, putting greens, a cycle track and a cafe. In the second half of the nineteenth century Burnley's population increased almost five-fold and there was a pressing need for public open space so from 1872, the council opted to provide recreation grounds, with several opened around the town in the following years which proved to be popular. In 1881, John Hargreaves Scott, a former mayor of Burnley, died leaving £10,000 to be used upon his wife's death to create a public park for the town. Although Mrs Scott died in 1884, the

trustees Trustee (or the holding of a trusteeship) is a legal term which, in its broadest sense, refers to anyone in a position of trust and so can refer to any individual who holds property, authority, or a position of trust or responsibility for the ...

took some time to decide where to use the money, meaning that Scott Park would not be the town's first. In 1888, a local

colliery Coal mining is the process of extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to generate electricity. Steel and cement industries use coal as a fuel for extra ...

owner, Sir John Hardy Thursby, donated the land, valued at £27,000 (equivalent to about £3 million in 2018), for the purpose of creating a public park in the town and the Burnley Corporation used its own money to lay-out the grounds. His company's Bank Hall Colliery was located to the north, and in the early years a tram road crossed the park to transport coal from Bee Hole and Rowley Collieries. The approximately triangular site is bounded by Queen Victoria Road to the northwest, Queen's Park Road to the northeast and Ormerod Road on the south. The original entrances are located at the corners. Those on Queen Victoria Road consist of a carriage entrance flanked by pedestrian entrances set between stone gate piers, all three gateways supporting ornamental iron gates. The central pair bear the

coat of arms A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the last two being outer garments), originating in Europe. The coat of arms on an escutcheon f ...

of the

Borough of Burnley The Borough of Burnley () is a local authority district, local government district with the Borough status in the United Kingdom, borough status in Lancashire, England. It has an area of and a population of (), and is named after its largest ...

. The simple metal gates at the southeast corner were installed later, after coal mining had ceased under that area. An ornate

drinking fountain A drinking fountain, also called a water fountain or water bubbler, is a fountain designed to provide drinking water. It consists of a basin with either continuously running water or a tap. The drinker bends down to the stream of water and s ...

was built to commemorate the gift. It consists of a circular

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

bowl lined with rendered brick carried on octagonal

piers Piers may refer to: * Pier, a raised structure over a body of water * Pier (architecture), an architectural support * Piers (name), a given name and surname (including lists of people with the name) * Piers baronets, two titles, in the baronetages ...

with ball

finial A finial () 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 dome, spire, tower, roo ...

s. It is surrounded by a

canopy Canopy may refer to: Plants * Canopy (biology), aboveground portion of plant community or crop (including forests) * Canopy (grape), aboveground portion of grapes Religion and ceremonies * Baldachin or canopy of state, typically placed over an a ...

with four pairs of polished

granite Granite ( ) is a coarse-grained (phanerite, phaneritic) intrusive rock, 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 coo ...

Ionic order columns on a stone

plinth A pedestal or plinth is a support at the bottom of a statue, vase, column, or certain altars. Smaller pedestals, especially if round in shape, may be called socles. In civil engineering, it is also called ''basement''. The minimum height o ...

. On top of the canopy is a dome with an

obelisk An obelisk (; , diminutive of (') ' spit, nail, pointed pillar') is a tall, slender, tapered monument with four sides and a pyramidal or pyramidion top. Originally constructed by Ancient Egyptians and called ''tekhenu'', the Greeks used th ...

finial, and on the plinth are inscribed bronze panels. The extension northwards of Belvedere Road in the early 20th century separated the southwest tip of the park, containing a two-storey stone-built lodge, from the remainder. Queens Park is listed as a Grade II public park by

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 ...

and has also been awarded the

Green Flag Award The Green Flag Award is an international accreditation given to publicly accessible parks and open spaces, managed under licence from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, a UK Government department, by Keep Britain Tidy, ...

for its high standards.

References

{{Borough of Burnley buildings Parks and commons in Burnley Grade II listed parks and gardens in Lancashire 1893 establishments in England

See also

References