Fried onion smell lasted for days After popular park dance!
IT always makes me smile that Tunstall’s Victoria Park was officially opened in 1908 – seven years after the monarch who it honours died. It is just the kind of quirky Potteries circumstance that may have come from an Arnold Bennett novel – and of course, his journal entry for December 31, 1905 actually recorded that he had seen the laying out of Tunstall Park whilst walking in the company of its designer, AR Wood.
That the park took so long to establish was mainly due to a long-running argument about whether to run a cart road through it – thus disturbing the tranquillity of the green space – or around it.
Civic bigwigs, as well as the local press, debated the issue over many years.
Victoria Park Road, as it is now called, eventually bordered the new municipal amenity, and among those who had a splendid view of the new green oasis were members of the Barber family of cinema pioneers, potters’ managers and prosperous tradesmen.
Another notable who lived in the road was Edwin George
Cumberlidge, who came from a famous Tunstall family of grocers.
He died in 1938 and had been a member of the park bowling club.
Tunstall Park’s resplendent memorial gates were opened by in 1908, having been presented to the town by the late John Nash Peake and his sisters in order to mark the contribution to the town of their father, the late Thomas Peake.
They were the work of William Durose of Tunstall and bear the words, Floreat Tunstall.
Another reason for the delay in creating the park was the significant reclamation work that was required.
The Sentinel reported in 1911 on the number of old mine shafts on the 30-plus acre site – not to mention the mounds of pit spoil.
Some of this waste was reshaped in order to form the terrace – the highest point of the park.
Mining subsidence and the unhelpfulness of the soil also created problems in puddling the park lake, which struggled to retain water to begin with.
The park could boast of many eye-catching features including the clock tower given by the workpeople of the firm of William Adams and Company of Greenfield, Greengates and Newfield.
Adams had died in 1905 and the tower was unveiled two years later, though it is more accurately a reminder of several notable members of the long-lived
Adams family, as evinced by the inscriptions on each flank.
All manner of events took place in the park, especially Tunstall Carnival and fete.
Community queens from such as the Haywood Hospital and Goldenhill village would take part in such events, whilst the 1936 event saw the portrayal, by Nancy Mayer of Clanway Street, of the famous historical character, Lady Godiva, who rode in the parade on a white
horse.
Nothing in the newspaper report suggested that young Nancy took to her steed naked and only covered by her long hair, as the legend has it.
The same event featured horses from railway, brewery and colliery companies.
The Floral Hall has long been the pride of the park and had connections with the well-known Barber family, as recalled by Brian R. Barber in his 2010 book entitled, A Notable Life: Len Barber’s Story.
Brian wrote: “Len and Doris [Barber] organised dances in the Floral Hall, Tunstall Park, once or twice a year.
“An early Methodist minister worried about the propriety of dancing, and asked whether alcohol would be sold during the evening (to which the answer was invariably ‘no’ so he needn’t have worried.)
“Tickets were always a sell-out. There was an orchestra for old time dances, good conversation and friendship, plenty of fun and laughter, and a large buffet for which Doris and one helper cooked one hundred and fifty hot dogs in the kitchen at ‘Lemnos’ – the fragrance of fried onions lasted for days!
“They danced the barn dance, the tango, the dashing white sargeant and other such lively affairs, did the hokey cokey, and conga’ed through the beautiful floral conservatory. These events were well loved and well remembered.”
Easily within living memory, older people recall dipping their feet in the paddling pool that later became a flower bed at Tunstall Park or kicking a ball around on the “Donkey Pitch.”
Stoke-on-trent’s very own pop star Robbie Williams is known to have played football in the park.
Back in grandad’s day, a park superintendent was respected a darn sight more than we respect today’s bank managers – and didn’t need bodycams like some of today’s park rangers.
However, he has long been consigned to the history, as well as the old council parks departments, sucked into the vortex of “leisure services.”
And the result? I have seen vandalism increase alarmingly in the 50-plus years I have known the park, whilst my archives bulge with Sentinel press cuttings relating to ruffians’ misdeeds.
There was even a report in 2002 about a car having been abandoned in the main lake.
Today, when we talk of reclaiming our parks, we don’t mean bringing waste land under cultivation as we
did back in the day. We mean reclaiming these valuable open spaces from hoodlums.
It will be seen that Tunstall Park, over the years, has been a battleground for the good and evil forces in society – a combat zone with rhodendrons, if you like.
We need to flood our parks with decent folk, such as morning dog-walkers and cafe-gatherers – and we need events.
Certainly, events have lured me to Tunstall Park. I have played in crown green bowling matches there.
I was one of the competitors in the 5 km race that took place there in 1996 as part of what the council called its series of City Parks Grand Prix races.
I have also attended several carnivals in the park.
The 1996 affair was a particularly good one, featuring the regulators, with their cowboy shoot-out routine, Stanworth’s Fun Fair, contributions from Tunstall Rotarians and church groups as well as the fascinating spectacle of two gigantic, fibre-glass Sumo wrestlers battling against each other.
It is worth recording here that Tunstall Park – like so much other council-owned greenspace - has been determinedly maintained by the local authority in spite of the egregious levels of vandalism.
Heritage Lottery Fund cash has been a godsend to our local parks, as well as initiatives such as Greening For Growth.
To that end, the glories of Tunstall
Park have periodically been recognised.
In 2001, the park – and the streets facing it – were given Conservation Area status.
In 2002, it was registered on English Heritage’s list of parks and gardens of special historic interest, recognising its historic and cultural importance.
Certainly, this gave yours truly something else to highlight when I gave a centenary lecture on the history of the park in the Floral Hall in 2008. The same venue played host to its first wedding ceremony in
2014.
In 2015, The Sentinel reported that the Stoke-on-trent Safer City Partnership had provided
£50,000 for CCTV and lighting in the park – in order to tackle the ongoing problem of anti-social behaviour in the park.
Tunstall Park – which boasts a fine café in the Floral Hall – is a veritable paradise when you catch it at its best. Now there is even more reason to take a fresh look at the park, with this year’s renovation of those famous gates.
They have been tastefully restored in black and gold, the work having been carried out by Stoke-based Alliance Technical Services and Ridware Architectural.
Arnold Bennett would surely
have been tremendously impressed.
Green Door – a registered charity that promotes accessible outdoor activities for all – and myself are presenting an hour-long history tour of the park on Monday, starting at 11 am promptly from outside the café. Admission is £3 and with Covid restrictions, it is necessary to book in advance on
07761 798979.