Centenary Park a gift to city after the horrors of war
Relief and gratitude at the end of the First World War led one prominent local family to make a gift which local people still enjoy today. Jonathan Rowe of Brislington Conservation and History Society looks back at the grand opening of Victory Park
THIS year sees the centenary of the opening of Victory Park in School Road, Brislington, a gift to the people of Brislington as a thanksgiving for peace after the First World War by Mr and Mrs Joseph Cooke-Hurle of Brislington Hill House.
The family were major landowners in the former North Somerset village for over 150 years. Mr Cooke-Hurle, who had served in the Somerset Yeomanry during the war had originally wanted the park to be called Peace Park, but this was vetoed by Brislington Parish Council.
The site of nearly 13 acres had been bought by from the ‘Squire of Brislington,’ Alfred Clayfield-Ireland of Brislington Hall for £1,245. It is believed the site, originally part of a larger area of fields, dates back to the medieval period.
Parts of the hedgerow date from around 1480 to 1680, and the park contains several trees which are over 200 years old including an ash from around 1745 and an oak dating back to about 1690.
The park was officially opened on Saturday March 27 1920, the ceremony being “attended by a large company, the proceedings being marked with much enthusiasm” according to the Bristol Times & Mirror.
A procession was formed in Brislington Square, comprising of exservicemen, the 5th Bristol Bonville Scouts. Brislington Girl Guides, St Luke’s Lad’s Brigade, Brislington
Fire Brigade (with a section in “weird fancy dress”), the Parish Council, local clergy, school children and local residents, led by Kingswood Training School Cadet Band.
The party proceeded to the site where trees were planted by Mrs Cooke-Hurle. In his opening speech Mr Cooke-Hurle said he felt: “There could be no more fitting memorial of the Peace, won after such a long and terrible conflict by our country and its allies, than a place where young people could meet for their games, and where older ones could see and watch them.”
Brislington had lost 120 men in the Great War and Mr CookeHurle’s own brother, Capt. William Armitage Cooke Hurle was to die shortly of the effects of naval war exposure.
Mr Cooke-Hurle then handed the title deeds of the land to Mr W.G. Silcocks, Chairman of Brislington Parish Council, saying: “These deeds secure this park to the Parish for ever, free from any condition except that it should always remain a recreation ground for the inhabitants of the parish of Brislington”.
Mr Silcocks responded: “The park would benefit not only the present generation, but generations to come” and proposed a “a hearty vote of thanks” to Mr and Mrs Cooke-Hurle for their generous gift and declared Victory Park open.
This was followed by a display of physical drill by the Church Lads Brigade and a fancy dress football match between “Brislington Old Crocks” versus the Church Lads Brigade, kicked off by Mr CookeHurle. Buns were distributed to the children.
This was the last act of the CookeHurle family in Brislington, as they moved away the following year to Kilve Court, near Bridgwater, though much of their property and land was not sold off until 1946.
Brislington Parish Council was dissolved in 1933 when Brislington came fully within Bristol’s boundaries.
One of its last acts was to erect a memorial tablet commemorating the opening of the park which can still be seen today.
During the Second World War, “Holidays at Home” entertainments were held in the park. American G.I.s played cricket and baseball with local children, and a large Scout Jamboree was held there in 1944. A bomb crater dating from a wartime air raid in 1942 can be seen today.
In 1946 several trees were felled and the ground levelled to form a football pitch, despite protests by local people, St Luke’s Parish Coun
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Mrs Joseph Cooke-Hurle, as she was referred to in newspaper reports of the opening, is better known to posterity as Norah Fry (18711960). Born into the wealthy Fry family, she married Joseph CookeHurle in 1915 and would go on to become the first woman councillor in Somerset, and an influential and generous patron of research into learning disability. Bristol University’s Norah Fry Centre for Disability Studies was named after her when it opened in 1988. cil and the Cooke-Hurle family.
One hundred years from its opening the park retains its unique, tranquil, rural atmosphere, surrounded by fields and farmland where horses still graze.
Sadly, this quiet and idyllic spot is threatened by housing development in the surrounding fields. Although the park is now in close proximity to busy roads and what remains of Brislington Trading Estate, football is still played there and it is a favourite spot for dog walkers.
Because of its very name, Victory Park should always remind us all of the sacrifice made by a generation who fought “the war to end to all wars.”