A Walk Around Mesnes Park

Hello everyone. Mesnes Park is a classic example of an English Victorian urban park. This morning I took a stroll around with the camera and Syd the dog and once again it is a beautiful day here in the UK. It seemed the perfect opportunity to take a few pictures and show you all around and tell you a bit about it.

In 1877 John McClean of Castle Donington won a competition to design the park and Mesnes (pronounced mains) Park was opened by the High Sheriff of Lancashire, Nathaniel Eckersley the following year in August 1878. The Victorians certainly knew how to get things done.

The land itself used to be meadow and pasture but by 1847 there were two collieries on the site. Wigan Corporation bought the land in 1871 under the proviso that it must include a grammar school and a public park. The site covers nearly 30 acres and sits on gently sloping ground.

Here is the main entrance to the park. The main gates and railings were removed as part of the war effort. They were retrieved and re-hung in 1950.

Just beyond the main gate is this noticeboard with local events, a map and more of the history of the park.

Here we see the park lodge, designed by W H Fletcher of London and built in 1926 to replace the original lodge. It became dilapidated and was recently refurbished. It now hosts wedding services among other things.

There are many flowerbeds like these around the park. The gardeners are always beavering away planting new flowers and keeping the lawns tidy. The flag marks a recent green award they received.

Behind the lodge is the old grammar school. The school closed decades ago and the building is now an NHS outpatients clinic.

From here we can see the main avenue, originally known as carriage drive. The avenue leads past a bronze statue to the fountain and pavilion.

The statue is of Sir Francis Sharp Powell, a conservative politician and it is only the second statue of a living person to be erected in Britain. He attended the unveiling himself in 1910.

Here is the noticeboard with further information about the statue and a picture of the unveiling.

Next we come to the fountain. The original fountain on this site which was supplied by Coalbrookdale Ltd was removed in the 1920's and the site stood empty until only a few years ago when this wonderful fountain was erected in its place. We can see the gardeners hosepipe running behind as they work to protect the flowerbeds from these unusually hot and dry weather conditions.

Here we see the Boer War (South African War) statue. This statue was erected in 2013 and it replaced the original statue which was removed in 1968.

Here on the noticeboard is more information about the Boer War and the statues. There is also a picture of the original statue. Free school meals were introduced for the first time when it was discovered that 1 in 3 people who volunteered to fight in the war were medically unfit due to poverty diseases.

Behind the Boer War statue sits the pavilion building. Built in 1880, it was also designed by W H Fletcher and is a grade 2 listed building. It serves as a cafe and is currently run by old local company Fredericks Ice Cream. There is an outdoor seated pavilion and inside there is two tiered indoor seating.

The view from the pavilion along the main avenue.

Side view of the pavilion building from the bottom of the steps. This path leads over to the bandstand.

This grade 2 listed bandstand was added to the park in 1890. It was supplied by Messrs Ges Smith & Co of Glasgow. The bandstand is still used regularly.

Nearby is the lake. Here you can see many different kinds of birds such as pigeons, geese, ducks, swans and moorhens to name but a few. The lake was created from two marl pits. A single golden carp lives in there. I call it Lonesome George. I've seen it basking in the sun a couple of times. There used to be more but they died after the lake was drained a couple of times.

A swan usually sits there on guard at the corner of one of the islands in the lake. I suspect they may be taking shade somewhere.

The birds obviously shy away from Syd. She gave up chasing birds years ago but she still can't resist a squirrel chase. She never catches them.

The view from the other side of the lake.

From here the pavilion building can be seen in the background. On the left is a large rock water feature. Unfortunately the waterfall is turned off. Usually the water cascades down over the rocks into the lake.

Here is the rose garden sitting nestled between rhododendron hedges. It fell into a bad state towards the end of the 20th century but was restored in 2003. The newly restored garden was officially opened by the actor Sir Ian McKellen who grew up just across the road.

Here is some more information about the garden.

A remembrance and thank you to the coal workers of the Wigan coalfields. The vast majority of my male ancestors slaved away underground in the dark and dangerous mines going as far back as I can trace to the 1700's. Over 4000 people died in the Wigan pits.

Some more information about the local pit industry.

A little further on around the park we come to the bowling lawns and pavilion. The lawns are no longer used for bowling. Now people use them for anything from dog exercise to football. Syd likes to run around here sometimes if it's not too busy.

Across from the bowling lawns is a quieter field, and Syd's favourite. Behind the field and bushes sits an old disused Victorian Mill. The huge chimney can be seen standing over the trees.

This is as close as I can get to the disused factory but as you can see, it was a fine building in its day. It was designed by George Woodhouse in 1866 and is on the top 10 endangered buildings list in the UK. Some of the brick pattern work was the best and most expensive of its time. The building was re-used by Wigan college for some years but has now been unoccupied for over a decade and needs to be saved soon or demolished.

That brings us to the end of our stroll around Mesnes Park.

I do hope you have enjoyed it.

Have a lovely day friends.

STEEMONKEY🐒