Public Parks, Municipal Gardens and Open Spaces
Public walks are amongst the earliest types of recreational open spaces. Historic England has drawn attention to notable examples of these public walks, the fashion for which – to enable social walking, the promenade – took off in the mid C17. One very early example at Northernhay (part of the later Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens, registered at Grade II) extended round the north and north-east sides of Exeter Castle (Devon). This was levelled and laid out by the city authorities in 1612 as a public walk with an avenue of elms and seats for the use of the elderly.
The walk along the outer defences of Carisbrooke Castle may be considered as an example of a public walk offering far-reaching views to the north and the south. George Brannon recommended tourists to undertake a ‘circumambulation on the terrace’ and noted that the plantations around the terraces were made by Lord Bolton, a former Governor of the Isle of Wight, in 1805.
The Mall at Carisbrooke Road, Newport is a C19 raised walk above the highway, backed by terraced 1860s Italianate houses on the NW side and planted with trees.
Urban public parks were created in England mainly from the 1840s following a Parliamentary Select Committee report in 1833 which recommended greater provision of open spaces for leisure pursuits.
J C Loudon, who had a commitment to social improvement, was among the leading advocates of public parks. These were among the first elements of much-needed urban reform and came to be one of the main ways in which civic pride was expressed.
Common elements of such parks included boundary walls, gate lodges, separate carriage ways and inter-weaving paths, one or more lakes, grass to play on, ornamental trees to give instruction and form, rippling water to enliven the scene, shrubberies for year-round foliage, rock gardens, bedding and flowers intended to give seasonal colour. Buildings included shelters, seats, and often bandstands, while tucked-away service yards accommodated glass houses.
Smaller parks were provided from the 1880s thanks to the Open Spaces Act of 1881 and the Disused Burial Ground Act of 1884. Queen Victoria’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees also stimulated public park provision and a good number of towns saw fit to celebrate the occasions in this way; most towns had at least one park by 1900. Common features now included bandstands, pagodas, lodges, pavilions and refreshment rooms alongside shelters, lavatories and drinking fountains. These features enabled the use of parks in poor weather and demonstrated the authorities’ concern for public health and morality.
The Island does not have any public parks and gardens of national significance incorporating the elaborate design features described above. Various reasons may account for this lack of nationally significant sites; the Island’s towns were small in size in the C19 and early C20 and did not possess the economic resources of larger mainland towns, the Island did not possess a large industrial working class (despite the ship-building industry in East and West Cowes) and there was much countryside and coast close to towns which was readily accessible for recreational purposes. However, the Island does have public parks and gardens of local significance and a number of these have been placed on the Local List.
On the Isle of Wight, the distinction between the categories of ‘Public Parks, Municipal Gardens & Open Spaces’ and ‘Seaside Gardens & Promenades’ is blurred. Many public parks and gardens are in seaside towns and were designed for use by both the local population and visitors e.g. Ventnor Park, Appley Park, Puckpool Park, Sandham Grounds, Los Altos, Rylstone Gardens and Tower Cottage Gardens.
Most of these parks and gardens are described below but Sandham Grounds form an essential part of Sandown’s seaside character and are therefore described under ‘Seaside Gardens and Promenades’ tab.
The public open spaces that were created on the Island in the C19 were mainly recreation grounds rather than ornamental parks. Recreation grounds were also created in the C20.
Examples of early recreation grounds include West Cowes Recreation Ground (officially presented to the Local Board by William G Ward in1875 but shown on the 25 inch Ordnance Survey map of 1865) and Jubilee Recreation Ground in East Cowes (presented to the Local Board by Lord Gort to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887).
Victoria Recreation Ground at Newport is on land donated by Tankerville Chamberlayne, a Hampshire landowner and Southampton MP, to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (recorded on a metal plaque on the park gates). The recreation ground was opened and dedicated to the public by Princess Henry of Battenberg, the then Governor of the Isle of Wight, in 1902 (also recorded on a plaque). It has a cricket pavilion, lodge and park gates.
Seaclose Park in Newport is a mid C20 example of a public facility where the focus was on providing space for sporting activities rather than the provision of a landscaped park.
The only example of a typical Victorian urban public park on the Isle of Wight is at Ventnor.
Ventnor Park (LL) was formerly part of the Steephill Castle Estate but was presented to the town in 1898. It is a traditionally landscaped park with a stream, herbaceous and shrub bedding and annual bedding. The Park contains a lodge (now privately owned) and a bandstand which originally belonged to Ventnor Pier and was relocated to the park in 1903. There are views out from the park over the English Channel.
Ventnor Park became ‘Park of the Year’ and won a gold medal at the South and South East England in Bloom award ceremony in 2014 when it was described as ‘the quintessential Victorian park and the jewel in the crown of the Island’s parks’.
Some public parks and gardens are on historic sites where their C20 characteristics form overlays to earlier design layouts, although most have modern play or recreational facilities.
Northwood Park (LL) was formerly the pleasure grounds associated with Northwood House. The house and grounds were presented to Cowes Urban District Council by the Ward family in 1929. The park, now owned and maintained by the Northwood House Charitable Trust, retains the framework of the C19 pleasure grounds, contains mature trees and contributes significantly to the character of Cowes.
Church Litten (LL) in Newport became a public park in the C20 but was formerly St Thomas’s Graveyard, a burial ground dating from 1582.
The surviving arched stone gateway of the Elizabethan cemetery (LB II), restored in 1962, forms the entrance to the park which has mature trees and provides a historically significant green space close to Newport’s town centre.
Adjacent to Litten Park is a small formal rose garden. This may be the work of the Milner White landscape gardening partnership of London which is known to have carried out work in connection with Litten Park Gardens in about 1960.
Appley Park was formerly part of the Appley Tower estate which was created in the mid C19. The site was acquired by Ryde Borough Council in the C20 and a public park was created after World War II.
Today, Appley Park contains a mixture of wooded parkland and open grassland. The northern edge of the park is defined by a promenade running along the sea wall where the folly of ‘Appley Tower’ (LB II) is sited.
Appley Park contributes to the seaside character of Ryde and provides a historically significant green space.
Puckpool Park originally lay within the grounds of a C19 Swiss style cottage orné built in 1822 . The estate was purchased by the War Department in the mid C19 in order to build a Battery. Later, the site was later split between the house and grounds which became a holiday camp and the Battery which became a public park in the late 1920s.
Today, Puckpool Park contains a lodge (now privately owned), entrance gates, a former barracks building and Puckpool Battery which is a Scheduled Monument.
Los Altos, sandwiched between the residential areas of Sandown and Lake, originated as a small area of private parkland laid out in the late C19. It is first shown as a public park on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey published in the 1970s.
Rylstone Gardens (LL), opened by Shanklin Urban District Council after 1914, is located on the south side of Shanklin Chine. It occupies the former pleasure grounds of Rylstone House, a villa dating from the 1860s (now Rylstone House Hotel LB II) and contains a Swiss chalet (LB II) of c.1880. The gardens possess mature trees, have views into Shanklin Chine and out to the English Channel, and contribute significantly to the character of the Shanklin Conservation Area.
Tower Cottage Gardens are located on the north side of Shanklin Chine and occupy the grounds of an early C19 cottage orné illustrated in an engraving of Shanklin Chine by George Brannon. These gardens were purchased by Shanklin Urban District Council in the early C20. The historic path layout survives, including a perimeter walk around the top of the chine which provides glimpses down through mature trees into and across the chasm below.
Ryde contains two significant local green spaces at St John’s Park and Vernon Square. These two sites are very different in character, but both originated as private landscaped grounds. Neither has public right of access although an unofficial path used by the public crosses St John’s Park. Vernon Square is owned by a local amenity society and is generally open to the public but can be shut at will.
St John’s Park (LL) originally formed part of the mid C19 St John’s Park housing development, built on part of the St John’s estate and providing a communal but private park for owners of the surrounding villas.
Today, St John’s Park remains undeveloped, but a lack of management has allowed secondary woodland to colonise the former lawned areas and large trees are now competing for light. However, the iron railings delineating the park still survive as do the gateways into the park with their stone gate piers.
Although much of its former designed aspect has been lost, St John’s Park contributes significantly to the character of the surrounding area and is a unique local example of a ‘communal but private’ park. The special character of the park has been recognised by its inclusion in the St John’s Park Conservation Area.
Vernon Square (LL) started life as a private space forming the front garden of Vernon House, built c.1830, but is now maintained as a publically accessible garden by the Vernon Square Preservation Society. London has many public squares which provide local green space, but Vernon Square is unique on the Isle of Wight in having this character.
In addition to public parks and gardens the Island contains other green spaces representing a variety of historic landscape types.
Former greens and commons provide links with past land use and new public open spaces provide informal recreation sites and habits for wildlife. Examples include Colwell Common, School Green at Freshwater, Yarmouth Common, Fishbourne Green, Play Lane Millennium Green near Ryde, St Helens Green, Lake Common and Big Meade at Shanklin.
Other informal open spaces are remnants of former designed landscapes such as the Springhill Woods at East Cowes, originally part of the Springhill estate, the ‘Zigzag’ at Mornington Road, West Cowes (possibly associated with Stanhope Lodge) and Pelham Woods at St Lawrence, formerly within the grounds of Sea Cottage/Marine Villa.
Bonchurch Landslip was originally rough grazing land belonging to Bonchurch Farm but became a picturesque tourist attraction in the C19.
A path through The Landslip is shown on the 1st edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map (c.1876-1885) and additional paths are shown on later maps. A ‘seat’ formed of natural stone and known as the 'Wishing Seat' is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey and still survives. A natural rock formation called 'The Devil's Chimney' visited by early tourists also survives to the present day.
The Landslip was purchased by a consortium of local councils during World War I and has been managed as a public amenity since that date.
In 1925 new ground was acquired at the top of the Landslip, comprising an area of shrubs and fruit trees, and a small bungalow on which an extension was built for use as a tea room. This area, known as Smugglers Haven from 1946, was opened to the public and a putting green was provided.
A structure at the south end of Smugglers Haven was probably built as a viewing platform. A tower at the eastern edge of the site may have been a 'prospect tower' associated with the designed landscape at Eastdene. Smugglers Haven, which is still extant, is an unusual local example of a tea garden.
Public Squares often contain only ‘hard landscaping’ features such as paving and street furniture but may also contain ornamental planting, trees and monuments.
St Thomas Square and St James Square, in Newport, originally formed part of the layout of the planned medieval town (see Section 12.3). St Thomas’s Square, the site of medieval markets, contains the parish church and a war memorial and is now once again the home to weekly markets. St James was used as a market place in the early C20 and contains the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Yarmouth, like Newport, was a planned medieval town and ‘The Square’ formed part of the town’s layout. It consists of a broad north-south street containing the small town hall of 1763.
St Thomas’s Square in Ryde, adjacent to a C19 church on the site of an early C18 chapel, was once a green space adjacent to the settlement of Upper Ryde before the present town was developed from the late C18.
Moa Place, Freshwater (LL), at the junction of School Green Road and Brookside Road, is a purpose built decorative terrace of shops with flats over in red brick with a central clock pediment and feature gables. It was constructed by a Mr Scierry in 1896 on his return from New Zealand and is associated with a small triangular green. This green is shown on the six inch Ordnance Survey drawing of 1793-4 and may be a remnant of a much larger green.
Public walks are amongst the earliest types of recreational open spaces. Historic England has drawn attention to notable examples of these public walks, the fashion for which – to enable social walking, the promenade – took off in the mid C17. One very early example at Northernhay (part of the later Northernhay and Rougemont Gardens, registered at Grade II) extended round the north and north-east sides of Exeter Castle (Devon). This was levelled and laid out by the city authorities in 1612 as a public walk with an avenue of elms and seats for the use of the elderly.
The walk along the outer defences of Carisbrooke Castle may be considered as an example of a public walk offering far-reaching views to the north and the south. George Brannon recommended tourists to undertake a ‘circumambulation on the terrace’ and noted that the plantations around the terraces were made by Lord Bolton, a former Governor of the Isle of Wight, in 1805.
The Mall at Carisbrooke Road, Newport is a C19 raised walk above the highway, backed by terraced 1860s Italianate houses on the NW side and planted with trees.
Urban public parks were created in England mainly from the 1840s following a Parliamentary Select Committee report in 1833 which recommended greater provision of open spaces for leisure pursuits.
J C Loudon, who had a commitment to social improvement, was among the leading advocates of public parks. These were among the first elements of much-needed urban reform and came to be one of the main ways in which civic pride was expressed.
Common elements of such parks included boundary walls, gate lodges, separate carriage ways and inter-weaving paths, one or more lakes, grass to play on, ornamental trees to give instruction and form, rippling water to enliven the scene, shrubberies for year-round foliage, rock gardens, bedding and flowers intended to give seasonal colour. Buildings included shelters, seats, and often bandstands, while tucked-away service yards accommodated glass houses.
Smaller parks were provided from the 1880s thanks to the Open Spaces Act of 1881 and the Disused Burial Ground Act of 1884. Queen Victoria’s Golden and Diamond Jubilees also stimulated public park provision and a good number of towns saw fit to celebrate the occasions in this way; most towns had at least one park by 1900. Common features now included bandstands, pagodas, lodges, pavilions and refreshment rooms alongside shelters, lavatories and drinking fountains. These features enabled the use of parks in poor weather and demonstrated the authorities’ concern for public health and morality.
The Island does not have any public parks and gardens of national significance incorporating the elaborate design features described above. Various reasons may account for this lack of nationally significant sites; the Island’s towns were small in size in the C19 and early C20 and did not possess the economic resources of larger mainland towns, the Island did not possess a large industrial working class (despite the ship-building industry in East and West Cowes) and there was much countryside and coast close to towns which was readily accessible for recreational purposes. However, the Island does have public parks and gardens of local significance and a number of these have been placed on the Local List.
On the Isle of Wight, the distinction between the categories of ‘Public Parks, Municipal Gardens & Open Spaces’ and ‘Seaside Gardens & Promenades’ is blurred. Many public parks and gardens are in seaside towns and were designed for use by both the local population and visitors e.g. Ventnor Park, Appley Park, Puckpool Park, Sandham Grounds, Los Altos, Rylstone Gardens and Tower Cottage Gardens.
Most of these parks and gardens are described below but Sandham Grounds form an essential part of Sandown’s seaside character and are therefore described under ‘Seaside Gardens and Promenades’ tab.
The public open spaces that were created on the Island in the C19 were mainly recreation grounds rather than ornamental parks. Recreation grounds were also created in the C20.
Examples of early recreation grounds include West Cowes Recreation Ground (officially presented to the Local Board by William G Ward in1875 but shown on the 25 inch Ordnance Survey map of 1865) and Jubilee Recreation Ground in East Cowes (presented to the Local Board by Lord Gort to mark Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee in 1887).
Victoria Recreation Ground at Newport is on land donated by Tankerville Chamberlayne, a Hampshire landowner and Southampton MP, to commemorate Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee in 1897 (recorded on a metal plaque on the park gates). The recreation ground was opened and dedicated to the public by Princess Henry of Battenberg, the then Governor of the Isle of Wight, in 1902 (also recorded on a plaque). It has a cricket pavilion, lodge and park gates.
Seaclose Park in Newport is a mid C20 example of a public facility where the focus was on providing space for sporting activities rather than the provision of a landscaped park.
The only example of a typical Victorian urban public park on the Isle of Wight is at Ventnor.
Ventnor Park (LL) was formerly part of the Steephill Castle Estate but was presented to the town in 1898. It is a traditionally landscaped park with a stream, herbaceous and shrub bedding and annual bedding. The Park contains a lodge (now privately owned) and a bandstand which originally belonged to Ventnor Pier and was relocated to the park in 1903. There are views out from the park over the English Channel.
Ventnor Park became ‘Park of the Year’ and won a gold medal at the South and South East England in Bloom award ceremony in 2014 when it was described as ‘the quintessential Victorian park and the jewel in the crown of the Island’s parks’.
Some public parks and gardens are on historic sites where their C20 characteristics form overlays to earlier design layouts, although most have modern play or recreational facilities.
Northwood Park (LL) was formerly the pleasure grounds associated with Northwood House. The house and grounds were presented to Cowes Urban District Council by the Ward family in 1929. The park, now owned and maintained by the Northwood House Charitable Trust, retains the framework of the C19 pleasure grounds, contains mature trees and contributes significantly to the character of Cowes.
Church Litten (LL) in Newport became a public park in the C20 but was formerly St Thomas’s Graveyard, a burial ground dating from 1582.
The surviving arched stone gateway of the Elizabethan cemetery (LB II), restored in 1962, forms the entrance to the park which has mature trees and provides a historically significant green space close to Newport’s town centre.
Adjacent to Litten Park is a small formal rose garden. This may be the work of the Milner White landscape gardening partnership of London which is known to have carried out work in connection with Litten Park Gardens in about 1960.
Appley Park was formerly part of the Appley Tower estate which was created in the mid C19. The site was acquired by Ryde Borough Council in the C20 and a public park was created after World War II.
Today, Appley Park contains a mixture of wooded parkland and open grassland. The northern edge of the park is defined by a promenade running along the sea wall where the folly of ‘Appley Tower’ (LB II) is sited.
Appley Park contributes to the seaside character of Ryde and provides a historically significant green space.
Puckpool Park originally lay within the grounds of a C19 Swiss style cottage orné built in 1822 . The estate was purchased by the War Department in the mid C19 in order to build a Battery. Later, the site was later split between the house and grounds which became a holiday camp and the Battery which became a public park in the late 1920s.
Today, Puckpool Park contains a lodge (now privately owned), entrance gates, a former barracks building and Puckpool Battery which is a Scheduled Monument.
Los Altos, sandwiched between the residential areas of Sandown and Lake, originated as a small area of private parkland laid out in the late C19. It is first shown as a public park on the 1:2500 Ordnance Survey published in the 1970s.
Rylstone Gardens (LL), opened by Shanklin Urban District Council after 1914, is located on the south side of Shanklin Chine. It occupies the former pleasure grounds of Rylstone House, a villa dating from the 1860s (now Rylstone House Hotel LB II) and contains a Swiss chalet (LB II) of c.1880. The gardens possess mature trees, have views into Shanklin Chine and out to the English Channel, and contribute significantly to the character of the Shanklin Conservation Area.
Tower Cottage Gardens are located on the north side of Shanklin Chine and occupy the grounds of an early C19 cottage orné illustrated in an engraving of Shanklin Chine by George Brannon. These gardens were purchased by Shanklin Urban District Council in the early C20. The historic path layout survives, including a perimeter walk around the top of the chine which provides glimpses down through mature trees into and across the chasm below.
Ryde contains two significant local green spaces at St John’s Park and Vernon Square. These two sites are very different in character, but both originated as private landscaped grounds. Neither has public right of access although an unofficial path used by the public crosses St John’s Park. Vernon Square is owned by a local amenity society and is generally open to the public but can be shut at will.
St John’s Park (LL) originally formed part of the mid C19 St John’s Park housing development, built on part of the St John’s estate and providing a communal but private park for owners of the surrounding villas.
Today, St John’s Park remains undeveloped, but a lack of management has allowed secondary woodland to colonise the former lawned areas and large trees are now competing for light. However, the iron railings delineating the park still survive as do the gateways into the park with their stone gate piers.
Although much of its former designed aspect has been lost, St John’s Park contributes significantly to the character of the surrounding area and is a unique local example of a ‘communal but private’ park. The special character of the park has been recognised by its inclusion in the St John’s Park Conservation Area.
Vernon Square (LL) started life as a private space forming the front garden of Vernon House, built c.1830, but is now maintained as a publically accessible garden by the Vernon Square Preservation Society. London has many public squares which provide local green space, but Vernon Square is unique on the Isle of Wight in having this character.
In addition to public parks and gardens the Island contains other green spaces representing a variety of historic landscape types.
Former greens and commons provide links with past land use and new public open spaces provide informal recreation sites and habits for wildlife. Examples include Colwell Common, School Green at Freshwater, Yarmouth Common, Fishbourne Green, Play Lane Millennium Green near Ryde, St Helens Green, Lake Common and Big Meade at Shanklin.
Other informal open spaces are remnants of former designed landscapes such as the Springhill Woods at East Cowes, originally part of the Springhill estate, the ‘Zigzag’ at Mornington Road, West Cowes (possibly associated with Stanhope Lodge) and Pelham Woods at St Lawrence, formerly within the grounds of Sea Cottage/Marine Villa.
Bonchurch Landslip was originally rough grazing land belonging to Bonchurch Farm but became a picturesque tourist attraction in the C19.
A path through The Landslip is shown on the 1st edition 25 inch Ordnance Survey map (c.1876-1885) and additional paths are shown on later maps. A ‘seat’ formed of natural stone and known as the 'Wishing Seat' is marked on the 1st edition Ordnance Survey and still survives. A natural rock formation called 'The Devil's Chimney' visited by early tourists also survives to the present day.
The Landslip was purchased by a consortium of local councils during World War I and has been managed as a public amenity since that date.
In 1925 new ground was acquired at the top of the Landslip, comprising an area of shrubs and fruit trees, and a small bungalow on which an extension was built for use as a tea room. This area, known as Smugglers Haven from 1946, was opened to the public and a putting green was provided.
A structure at the south end of Smugglers Haven was probably built as a viewing platform. A tower at the eastern edge of the site may have been a 'prospect tower' associated with the designed landscape at Eastdene. Smugglers Haven, which is still extant, is an unusual local example of a tea garden.
Public Squares often contain only ‘hard landscaping’ features such as paving and street furniture but may also contain ornamental planting, trees and monuments.
St Thomas Square and St James Square, in Newport, originally formed part of the layout of the planned medieval town (see Section 12.3). St Thomas’s Square, the site of medieval markets, contains the parish church and a war memorial and is now once again the home to weekly markets. St James was used as a market place in the early C20 and contains the Queen Victoria Memorial.
Yarmouth, like Newport, was a planned medieval town and ‘The Square’ formed part of the town’s layout. It consists of a broad north-south street containing the small town hall of 1763.
St Thomas’s Square in Ryde, adjacent to a C19 church on the site of an early C18 chapel, was once a green space adjacent to the settlement of Upper Ryde before the present town was developed from the late C18.
Moa Place, Freshwater (LL), at the junction of School Green Road and Brookside Road, is a purpose built decorative terrace of shops with flats over in red brick with a central clock pediment and feature gables. It was constructed by a Mr Scierry in 1896 on his return from New Zealand and is associated with a small triangular green. This green is shown on the six inch Ordnance Survey drawing of 1793-4 and may be a remnant of a much larger green.