Heaton Park

Heaton Park, covering an area variously reported as 600 acre, 640 acre, and 650 acre is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, England and one of the biggest municipal parks in Europe. It is often said to be the biggest municipal park in Europe but vies for this title with Sefton Park, Liverpool which is of a similar size at 640 acre. The park comprises the grounds of a grade I listed, neoclassical 18th-century country house, Heaton Hall. The hall was remodelled to a design by James Wyatt in 1772, and is now open to the public as a museum and events venue.

Heaton Park was sold to Manchester City Council in 1902, by the Earl of Wilton, to be kept for the enjoyment and recreation of the public and so it has remained to this day. It has one of the United Kingdom's few concrete towers, the Heaton Park BT Tower.

The park was renovated as part of a millennium project partnership between the Heritage Lottery Fund and Manchester City Council at a cost of over £10 million. Some of the buildings and original vistas from the 18th-century landscape design were restored. The restoration of the park was singled out for an award by the British Association of Landscape Artists from 100 entries in November 2005. It contains an 18-hole golf course, tennis courts, a boating lake, an animal farm, a pitch and putt course, a golf driving range, woodlands, ornamental gardens, an observatory, an adventure playground, a Papal Monument and a volunteer-run tramway system and museum (operational every Sunday, and Bank Holiday, afternoon during the summer months). The park is listed Grade II by English Heritage and contains nine listed buildings. It has the only flat green bowling greens in Manchester, which were built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games.

History
Heaton Hall had been owned by the Holland family since the Middle Ages. In 1684, when Sir John Egerton, 3rd Baronet of Wilton married Elizabeth Holland, the Hall came to the Egerton family. In 1772, Sir Thomas Egerton, 7th Baronet (later the 1st Earl of Wilton) commissioned the fashionable architect James Wyatt, to design a new home for his young family. Although Wyatt had already established a reputation for himself as an innovative architect, he was only 26 years old and Heaton Hall was his first country house. commission Wyatt's neo-classical masterpiece was built in phases and was mostly completed by 1789.

The park was originally laid out by William Emes in the style of Capability Brown. It had long been used for public events, ranging from horse racing in the early 19th century, to Volunteer Reviews in Victorian times. During the 19th century when the railway to Bury was being laid, it stopped short of Heaton Park, as Lord Wilton was not prepared to see his estate disfigured by a railway unless it was put into a tunnel. This was done and a station opened adjacent to the Whittaker Lane/Bury Old Road entrance in 1879 (this is now Heaton Park Metrolink station). Consequently, the decision by Lord Wilton to remove himself and place the hall and park up for sale was greeted with dismay, especially when it became known that the site was eyed by a property developer. A pressure group was formed to persuade Manchester City Council to purchase it as a museum and municipal park. (Alderman Fletcher Moss, a prominent antiquarian was a notable influence in this movement.) The park was purchased and opened to the public in 1902. Unfortunately, the council was not prepared to purchase the contents of the hall and so the furniture and paintings were auctioned off. The hall was considered to be of little architectural or historical significance, and the Saloon was initially used as a tea-room. The city council used the hall as a branch art gallery for many years, but eventually realised the architectural and historical importance of the building. A major restoration programme restored the state rooms to something resembling their original appearance, and period furniture was obtained to furnish them. (Some of the original pieces were recovered from store or purchased at sales.) Unfortunately the exterior of the hall is still in a bad state of repair with peeling paintwok and windows boarded up. It is hoped that this will eventually be rectified with further grants from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

The Manchester Pals used the park as a depot during the First World War, and several hutted camps were built. Again, the park was used as the site of a Royal Air Force depot in World War II.

Manchester Council later used part of the site to construct a large gravity feed reservoir, employing a contractors railway from Whitefield Station. This work was interrupted by the First World War, and only completed in the 1920s. A municipal golf course was also laid out, and a large boating lake excavated. The former facade of the first Manchester Town Hall on King Street was re-erected as a backdrop to the lake.

During the Second World War, two "prefab" housing estates and an infants school were built in the south of the park, the houses providing much-needed homes until they were demolished in the 1960s. The school building remains to this day and is used as a training centre.

Heaton Hall


The hall, which has been called "the finest house of its period in Lancashire", is built of sandstone and stuccoed brick, in a traditional Palladian design with the entrance on the north side and the facade on the south. The landscaping was designed to make the most of the uninterrupted views of the rolling hills across to the Pennines. An important feature of this was the ha-ha, used to keep the grazing animals, so important to the landscaping, away from the formal lawns, with a barrier that was all-but invisible from the house.

The state rooms include the Library, the fine Music Room, Dining Room, and (upstairs) a rather rare Etruscan Room.

The rooms of the hall were exquisitely finished by the finest artists and craftsmen of the period with most of the furnishings and mahogany doors being made by Gillows of Lancashire. Most of the decorative paintings were by an Italian artist, Biagio Rebeca, including the Pompeiian Cupola Room and the case for the chamber organ built by Samuel Green. The ornate plasterwork was created by the firm of Joseph Rose II of York.

There are 13 rooms in the central core and east wing that are open to the public. Manchester City Galleries restored the decorative detail in the 1980s and early 1990s. The ground floor range of rooms on the north east front has been converted to an expansive space that houses temporary exhibitions. The first floor rooms include the Cupola. This was originally Lady Egerton's dressing-room with mirrored walls and a domed ceiling, styled in the 1770s "Pompeiian" style, so rare that there are only three such rooms left in Britain.

An 18th-century Samuel Green organ fills one wall of the Music Room.

The Library was remodelled by Lewis Wyatt in the 1820s. Horse racing was held in the south-west of the park from 1825 to 1837, and a painting depicting one of the meetings can be seen here. The library is now licensed for civil partnership and wedding ceremonies. Heaton Hall's collections are managed by Manchester Galleries. Photography is not permitted in the hall but a collection of photographs of the hall's interior can be seen on the Manchester Art Gallery webpage.

The hall has been a Grade I Listed Building since 1952

Temple
Designed by James Wyatt in 1800 for the First Earl, the ornamental temple is a simple, small rotunda of Tuscan columns with domed roof and lantern. This Grade II listed building stands on the highest point of the City of Manchester giving views across the golf course, which was originally the deer park. It has it's own fireplace and is thought to have been used as an observatory by the Earl who is known to have owned a telescope bought from Dollonds of London. The cost of the telescope was £18.5s.0d, the same amount earned in a year by the Earl's under-butler. The temple has recently been enclosed by a stone balustrade and gravelled path and is used as a summer studio for artists and for astronomy sessions.

Dower House
The Dower House was a plain brick building that was transformed with a decorative columned facade in 1803. The ha-ha in front of the house stopped the cattle from grazing on the formal lawns, making a barrier which can't be seen from the house. In 2004 it became the home of the Manchester and District Beekeepers Association and is furnished with an observation hive, equipment and displays with an apiary in the garden behind the house.

Smithy Lodge


This pepperpot building located at the east entrance to the park, now on Middleton Road, was designed by Lewis Wyatt for the 1st Earl of Wilton in 1806. It was built in an unusual octagonal shape as a cottage to be viewed from the house in a romantic, rural setting, as well as being a home for the lodge keeper. The name comes from a blacksmith's forge located nearby on Middleton Road. The lodge was fully restored with a grant from the Lottery Heritage fund in the late 1990s and is now rented out to the public as short stay accommodation.

Grand Lodge


Commissioned in 1807 by Sir Thomas Egerton, Grand Lodge was designed by Lewis Wyatt as an impressive main entrance to the park from Manchester. The lodge is built of ashlar sandstone as a large triumphal arch which led onto one of the longest carriage drives to the house. It has two floors of accommodation, cellars under the west wing and an attic over the arch. The construction of the lodge completed the enclosure of the park by a 10 foot high boundary wall. It was refurbished as part of the millennium project and is now rented out to the public as short stay accommodation. There is a memorial plaque to the memory of the Manchester Pals who trained in the Park in 1914.

Western Pleasure Grounds
These ornamental gardens were probably laid out in the early ninteenth century as a peaceful retreat for the family. The gardens have recently been returned to their original design with pools, summerhouses and plants appropriate to the period. A tunnel leads from the flowergarden to The Dell and carries a causeway at high level across the gardens to allow the cattle, from the fields to the south of the garden, to be taken to the farm for milking without entering the gardens. The tunnel entrance is faced with large stones to give it the appearance of a natural cave.

Orangery
The Orangery was added to the house by the 2nd Earl of Wilton around 1823. It appears to have been designed by Lewis Wyatt as it is similar to his orangeries at Tatton Park and Belton House. He also added the impressive chimney stacks at the same time. Heaton's Orangery has a direct access from the east wing of the house and as the wife of the 2nd Earl, Lady Mary Stanley was a keen botanist it may well have been added for her. It was designed with a domed, glazed roof, fronted by a formal garden with two large copies of the Borghese Vase. The roof was removed after Manchester City Council purchased the park in 1902. The Orangery is now a function and conference venue, run by Manchester City Council's Hospitality and Trading Service.

Walled Garden and Horticultural Centre
The 18th century walled Garden was the Earl of Witon's kitchen garden supplying fruit and vegetables for the estate. The walls provide a warm microclimate for crop cultivation and support for climbing plants. The Horticultural Centre staff now grow plants for the city's displays and for sale to the public. There are also demonstration gardens open to the public during the summer and a sensory garden.

The Friends of Heaton Park are based in the centre where they hold regular coffee mornings.

Farm Centre, Stables Cafe and Animal Centre
The farm centre was originally built as a stable block for Sir Thomas Egerton. It was designed by Samuel Wyatt and built between 1777 and 1789. It now houses the Stables cafe and is also the administrative centre for the park. The Animal Centre is housed behind the stables in the area that was Home Farm, on the site of the nineteenth century glasshouse range where exotic foods and flowers were grown for the family. The Animal Centre was built in 2003–4 to replace the old Pet's Corner and houses goats, cattle, pigs, donkeys, hebridean sheep, alpacas and small pets.

Boating Lake
The 12 acre (5 ha) boating lake was constructed between 1908 and 1912 by previously unemployed men using only shovels and hand-pulled trucks. The lake, which is overlooked by the Lakeside Cafe, has three islands and is home to large numbers of ornamental and wildfowl including geese, ducks, swans and fantail doves. There are rowing boats for hire during the summer months. The lake it is noted for its excellent carp fishing and is also stocked with roach, rudd, bream, tench and chub. Fishing rights to all the waters in the park are held by the King Wiiliam IV Angling Society.

Hazlitt Wood Pond
In the far north of the park there is a lake. This area of the park can only be reached on foot and hence remains quiet and secluded.

Heaton Park Tramway
Shortly after the park was bought by Manchester Corporation the tramway was extended into the Park. The first tram arrived on 31 May 1903, bringing visitors from Manchester into the park.The Manchester Transport Museum Society (MTMS) was born in 1961 with the aim of creating a museum in which to make the society's various exhibits available to the public. It was decided that Heaton Park would be a suitable site for such a museum and proposals were made to the Parks Department of Manchester City Council.

The initial idea, to construct a new tramway from Grand Lodge to Heaton Hall, was considered too expensive. Therefore a new scheme was proposed to open up the old Manchester Corporation Tramways spur from Middleton Road to the old tram shelter some 300 yards (270 m) inside the park. The original track was buried under a layer of tarmac which had to be cleared and the old tram shelter had to be restored to form the centre of the society's operations.

The work was completed in 1979 and the Heaton Park Tramway was officially opened on the 28 March 1980.

The operation based upon the original siding has since been extended (by the use of track salvaged from elsewhere), largely on a private right of way to a new terminus short of the Boating Lake. Plans exist for a further extension, perhaps as far as the hall. A major restoration of the depot and museum complex is currently (2007) underway.

Heaton Park Golf Course
The municipal golf course is a picturesque, championship standard golf course, built on the former deer park to the south of the hall with spectacular views across to the Pennines. Designed by five times Open Champion JH Taylor, it was opened to the public in 1912 and has been the venue of many prestigious events, both professional and amateur. The golf centre, which has its own private driving range used for teaching purposes, is located at the Smithy Lodge, Middleton Road entrance to Heaton Park. The course has an undulating, championship length layout within which three picturesque lakes play a prominent part. The 11th is played across water to a plateau green and was rated by Open Champion Henry Cotton as the "the toughest par-3 in England". The course was voted the best municipal golf course in England in 2005. There is also a pitch and putt course.

Other facilities
There are many other things to see and do in the park such as:

Cycling, orienteering, horse riding, play areas, guided tours, pitch and putt, donkey rides, funfairs.


 * Things to see and do

Activity in the park
In 1909, the great Italian tenor, Enrico Caruso, performed at the Free Trade Hall in Manchester. The concert was attended by one William Grimshaw, a gramophone salesman from Prestwich and a few days later, he took his gramophone to Heaton Park and played recordings of the songs performed by Caruso to an assembled crowd of 40,000 people who, according to the Prestwich and Heaton Park Guardian, “… remained as if spellbound from the moment of arrival to the close of the programme, which, it is hardly necessary to say, was intensely enjoyed.” Caruso later wrote to Mr. Grimshaw to thank him for the way his voice had been reproduced, sending him a signed cartoon of himself. Grimshaw was the first person in England to give gramophone concerts in the open, an idea which soon spread across the country. The concerts were carried on for several seasons and as they grew in popularity, Grimshaw became known across Lancashire as "the gramophone King"

Since the 1980s a number of open air pop concerts have been held in the park, headlined by popular bands of the day such as Travis and Supergrass.

On the 31 May 1982 Pope John Paul II celebrated Mass in the park for over 100,000 people and ordained 12 new priests. This event is commemorated by the papal monument in the south-west of the park

In recent years the park has hosted some open-air theatre productions. In 2005 there was a performance of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. In the same year there was a sell out production of Dracula by Feelgood Theatre Productions as well as a Stella Artois Screening of Pulp Fiction with a film inspired set from the fun lovin' criminals.

In 2006 Feelgood returned with a performance of Arthur - King of the Britons. Feelgood also runs a series of acting and writing workshops in the park.

The park has been the venue for the BBC's "Proms in the Park" on a number of occasions.

There are often charity run events such as the Race for Life and seasonal fairs are located near the Papal Monument.

There is a large bonfire and firework display held on the 5th of November (Guy Fawkes Night) each year.

Gallery
Click photographs to view full size.

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