Weston Park is a public park with an area of just over 5 hectares in the City of Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It lies immediately west of the City Centre, alongside the Weston Park Museum. It is situated next to the University of Sheffield Library, Geography and Firth Court buildings, and across the road from Sheffield Children's Hospital. Along with Crookes Valley Park and The Ponderosa it is one of the three Crookesmoor parks.
Weston Park was the first municipal park in the city and was developed from the grounds of Weston Hall, which the Sheffield Corporation purchased for £15,750 following the death of its owners, Eliza and Anne Harrison. The hall itself was converted into the Sheffield City Museum. [1]
Robert Marnock was commissioned to design the park in 1873. New terra cotta pillared entrances were established at Winter Street and Western Bank using designs by Godfrey Sykes. The original lake from Weston Hall was extended and redesigned and the Ebenezer Elliott memorial statue was moved to the park from its original place in Market Place. A memorial to Godfrey Sykes was also erected in 1875 during the construction of the park, consisting of an 8-metre-high (26 ft) terra cotta column designed by James Gamble, one of Sykes's pupils. It depicts youth, maturity and old age. [2]
The park was opened to the public on Monday 6 September 1875 with the following day's Sheffield Daily Telegraph reporting: "The weather was fine. The Park looked in its gayest Summer dress. The walks were freshly gravelled, the flower beds were trim and well ordered." In 1882 the Weston Park Weather Station was erected privately by the curator of the adjacent museum Elijah Howarth. Howarth was known as "Elijah the Prophet" because of his reputation for forecasting the weather, he prepared daily forecasts to warn miners of changes in air pressure that could trigger the release of dangerous gases, he recorded daily weather observations for 47 years. It is the official climatological station for Sheffield and since 1937 it has been run by the museum's staff. The station consists of thermometers housed in a Stevenson screen, tipping bucket and funnel rain gauges and a soil thermometer which takes readings at the depths of 30 cm and 100 cm. [3] It is one of the oldest weather stations in the country and all records are freely available via computer database or printed media. [4]
In 1895 the South West gates were erected on Western Bank close to the newly constructed Mappin Art Gallery. This became the park's main entrance and was built primarily so affluent visitors could drive their carriages right up to the gallery's door. The bandstand was added around 1900. It was designed by the Sheffield architects Flockton and Gibbs and constructed at a foundry in Glasgow. It was one of a pair, the other being placed in Hillsborough Park, but this has since been demolished. The bandstand was in use until the mid-1970s and many well-known bands have played there, including the Black Dyke Band and the Coldstream Guards Band; it has also staged several rock concerts there. The restored bandstand is now an approved Civil Wedding venue. [5]
In 1905 the park was visited by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra during a visit to Sheffield in which they also opened the nearby University of Sheffield. A war memorial to the York and Lancaster Regiment was erected in the park in 1923 to commemorate the 8,814 of the regiment who died in the First World War.
In the 1950s, Sheffield Corporation agreed to the demolition of the Winter Street Gate, along with its lodge and outbuildings to allow for the construction of the University Library (now the Western Bank Library) [6]
In July 2016, to mark the 100th anniversary of the battle of the Somme, Weston Park was dedicated as a Fields in Trust Centenary Field [7] by Sheffield City Council because of its local heritage and significance. The York & Lancaster Memorial within the park commemorates the loss of more than 8,800 soldiers during the First World War, including the Sheffield Pals brigade.
In March 2006 it was announced that the Heritage Lottery Fund was awarding over £2,000,000 to help with the restoration of Weston Park. The work took two years to complete and consisted of the following work:
The park was formally reopened on Sunday 1 June 2008 by the Lord Mayor of Sheffield. [9]
Weston Park Museum is a museum in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. It is one mile west of Sheffield city centre within Weston Park. It is Sheffield's largest museum and is housed in a Grade II* listed building and managed by Museums Sheffield. Until 2006 it was called Sheffield City Museum and Mappin Art Gallery.
A bandstand is a circular, semicircular or polygonal structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts. A simple construction, it both creates an ornamental focal point and also serves acoustic requirements while providing shelter for the changeable weather, if outdoors. In form bandstands resemble ornamental European garden gazebos modeled on outdoor open-sided pavilions found in Asian countries from early times.
Kelvingrove Park is a public park located on the River Kelvin in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland, containing the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum.
The General Cemetery in the City of Sheffield, England opened in 1836 and closed for burial in 1978. It was the principal cemetery in Victorian Sheffield with over 87,000 burials. Today it is a listed Landscape on the English Heritage National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. It is also a Local Nature Reserve. It is owned by the City of Sheffield and managed on behalf of the city by a local community group, the Sheffield General Cemetery Trust.
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Sheffield has a large population of amateur, working and professional visual artists.
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Godfrey Sykes was an English designer, metalworker, sculptor and painter.
Mappin & Webb (M&W) is an international jewellery company headquartered in England. Mappin & Webb traces its origins to a silver workshop founded in Sheffield in 1775. It now has retail stores throughout the UK.
The Saracen Foundry was the better-known name for the Possilpark, Glasgow–based foundry company W MacFarlane & Co. Ltd, founded and owned by Walter MacFarlane. MacFarlane's was the most important manufacturer of ornamental ironwork in Scotland.
Theodore Roosevelt spent his first summer in Oyster Bay with his family in 1874. Through the ensuing years as he rose to power, Oyster Bay would frequently serve as backdrop and stage on which many of his ambitions were realized. Several places connected to Theodore Roosevelt in his lifetime remain, while others have been lost. A number of efforts to memorialize Roosevelt in Oyster Bay have been made since his death in 1919.
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Queen's Park is a heritage-listed botanic garden at Sussex Street, Maryborough, Fraser Coast Region, Queensland, Australia. A reserve for the botanical gardens was gazetted in October 1873. It contains the Maryborough War Memorial. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The South Bank Lion is an 1837 sculpture in Central London. Since 1966 it has stood next to County Hall, on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is a significant depiction of a lion, along with the four that surround Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square just across the river.
The Cavalry of the Empire Memorial, also known as the Cavalry Memorial, is a war memorial in Hyde Park, London. It commemorates the service of cavalry regiments in the First and Second World Wars. It became a Grade II listed building in 1987, and was promoted to Grade II* in November 2014.
Anzac Memorial Park is a heritage-listed memorial and park at The Strand, Townsville CBD, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was first built in 1912. It is also known as The Strand Park and Townsville War Memorial. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
The York and Lancaster Regiment War Memorial is a war memorial to members of the York and Lancaster Regiment, in Weston Park, Sheffield, England. It was erected in the park in 1923 to commemorate the 8,814 members of the regiment who died in the First World War. The original inscription reads:
Elijah Howarth FRAS was an English museum curator.
