Springfield Park is a park in Liverpool, England. It is located in the suburb of

Knotty Ash Knotty Ash is an area of Liverpool, Merseyside, England, and a Liverpool City Council Ward. Historically in Lancashire, the population at the 2001 Census was 13,200, increasing to 13,312 at the 2011 Census. Knotty Ash is well known as the hom ...

, and lies to the north of Prescot Road. Much of the park is now occupied by the newly rebuilt

Alder Hey Children's Hospital Alder Hey Children's Hospital is a children's hospital and NHS foundation trust in West Derby, Liverpool, England. It is one of the largest children's hospitals in the United Kingdom, and one of several specialist hospitals within the Liverpool ...

, which opened in October 2015. The park has a direct track that links to the

Trans Pennine Trail The Trans Pennine Trail is a long-distance path running from coast to coast across Northern England on a mixture of surfaced paths, with some short on-road sections, and with gentle gradients (it runs largely along disused railway lines and c ...

. It also has a path that leads into Alder Veterinary Hospital's Car-park and then continues to Eaton Road.

History

Springfield was originally the estate and grounds of Springfield House, one of a number of wealthy properties on the outskirts of the city. After a succession of owners, the estate was acquired in 1907 by Liverpool City corporation as a public amenity. The house, which stood in the north-west corner of the park, and the lodge at the front entrance, are no longer standing.

Features

The park has a number of features, but consists mainly of green space. There is an area that is situated next to the nearby Alder Hey Children's

that mainly consists of flower Flower beds and has a lambanana . It also has a children's playground on the site of the house, though no trace of the house remains. The park also contains 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 ...

commemorating the death of

Lord Nelson Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French ...

, which stands inside the main entrance. It was made on the orders of a Mr Downward, a sugar merchant of the city, who owned Springfield House at the time. It was offered to the city as a bequest, but the city council rejected it as being too small (one councillor dismissing it as "a half-nelson"). Insulted by this, Downward had the obelisk erected in the grounds of his home, where it remains. The obelisk is high, of red

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 ...

blocks, and bore a brass plaque with an inscription to the memory of Lord Nelson. It was

Grade II Listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, H ...

in June 1985.

Alder Hey in the Park

In 2012 proposals to rebuild

were announced and the construction of the new hospital broke ground in the Springfield Park in January 2013, taking a total of two years to build. The new hospital opened in October 2015 and plans include demolishing the original Alder Hey buildings then transforming the old hospital site by be reclaiming the land as new park space for the surrounding community.''Update on Springfield Park and Residential Development''
Alder Hey Hospital Press Office; Retrieved 21 September 2020

References

* Colin Twist, ''Parks and Gardens of Liverpool'' * Derek Whale, ''Lost villages of Liverpool''

External links

The Friends of Springfield Park Liverpool http://www.springfieldparkliverpool.org.uk/ {{Green Liverpool Parks and commons in Liverpool