Kirkham Memorial Gardens
Introduction
The Memorial Gardens are situated within the recreational grounds north of Poulton Street, (Kirkham's main high street), and between St Michael's Church and Morrisons supermarket and comprise a total area of approximately 1.7 hectares. The Garden's include the War Memorial with formal garden and rockery; a treelined walk, tennis courts, a playground and a large grassed area suitable for informal games.
History
The site had been an area of marshy ground and is believed to have been totally submerged in Roman times. The first recorded evidence of the site as a recreational ground is in 1892. When the Manor passed to Vale Royal, the land was let under five leases, which continued until the 19th century. Cunliffe Shaw refers to the area being damp by using the word Carr and describes it as follows: "The second lease concerned the manor house or parsonage of Kirkham, which stood within a field called the Close at the west end of the church... with the Carr belonging to it, this land is now the Recreational Ground and War Memorial Park."
By 1899, a Recreational Grounds Committee had been set up to look after the area, meeting twice a year to dis cuss problems and potential improvements. It was in this year that the Grounds were drained and made suitable for use. An entrance was created at the top of Birley Street providing a direct link into the Recreational Grounds.
On January 7th, 1925, the Kirkham Urban Distrct Council minutes make the first reference to the Memorial Gardens. It records that: "A deputation consisting of Messrs H Parkinson, W B Robinson, John Ward and John Brown met the council and asked the council to call a public meeting to consider the question of providing a public war memorial in Kirkham"
Lakeland Nurseries of Windermere, owned by Thomas Mawson, were approached to undertake the design of the Gardens: "Councillor Strange submitted a design of the proposed war memorial and asked permission of the Council to utilise a portion of the Recreational Ground as a site for such memorial and to consent to undertake the same if and when completed, when it was unanimously resolved that permission to utilise the site shown on the plan submitted with the design be granted, and further that the Council undertake the care of the same if and when completed."
Work started on the gardens in the early part of 1926. Although there is no record of confirmation of acceptance of the plans for the Memorial Garden in the council minutes, there is an entry referring to their construction in the Recreational Committee minutes on January 6th.
On 7th November 1926, the War Memorial was unveiled. An article in the Lytham St Anne's Standard on the 12th November gave a description of the Gardens and the ceremony that took place. It started that "many thousands" of people turned up to watch the procession through the town to the site of the Memorial. The Reverand Cresswell Strange, the Chairman of the Memorial Committee and acting Chairman of the Urban Distrct Council gave the ceremonial speech.
On the front of the Cenotaph was a bronze tablet inscribed with the names of the 105 men to whom the Memorial was dedicated. The opposite face held a bronze sword presented by Mr. E. Prentice Mawson, said to be the designer of the scheme. He was one of Thomas Mawson's brothers and worked with him at Lakeland Nurseries. There is no documented evidence of who designed and built the Cenotaph itself. The article also stated that £1,700 was subscribed for the scheme, but this more than covered the costs of the project.
Restoration
The war memorial has been renovated and surrounding landscape transformed during the 12-week revamp. A scheme to tackle land slippage at the park formed part of the work. Pruning of woodland in the park got under way in January, 16 months after the area surrounding the town's memorial was closed due to unsafe pathways.
The renovation follows over a year of study by specialist engineers, led by Wrea Green landscape architect Richard Eaves, to investigate the slip and report on the work required to prevent further movement. Cheetham Hill Construction of Manchester was appointed to carry out the work.
Teen Zone
In 2005 The Big Lottery committed £124 million pounds in order to develop children’s play provision which has enabled local authorities all over the UK including Fylde Borough Council to improve and develop their local play spaces.
Fylde Borough Council working with the community successfully applied for and secured £200,000 of which £75,000 was allocated for this new Teen Zone.
The scheme has been a huge success and has made a big difference to the lives of many local young people and residents who live opposite the site.
I would like to thank everybody who has worked so hard in partnership with the Council in order to deliver this project especially to The Big Lottery as with out their valued support and funding we could not have achieved this success.
Location
Kirkham Memorial Gardens, Barnfield, Kirkham, PR4 2BZ. please click the green tree on the map below for directions and further location information.
