Mexborough & Swinton Times – Friday 25 March 1932
The Denaby Main War Memorial Park is now completed, 13 ½ years after the conclusion of the war, and it has been worth waiting for. The park has been opened without ceremony and the inhabitants are now in the enjoyment of it, an enjoyment which will increase as the season advances, and the flowerbeds and shrubberies spring to life and beauty.
The park has been formed from a site 2 ¼ acres in extent fronting the main road through Denaby opposite Low Fields. The land was given by Captain F.J.O. Montagu and was vested in trustees who however were unable to raise funds and therefore asked the Urban District Council to take the Land over and to make a wayside park similar to the Coronation Park at Conisborough.
The Council accepted the responsibility and their surveyor Mr H Thurlwall, got out a scheme which included the provision of an ornamental gateway in which could be incorporated tablets bearing the names of the Denaby men who fell in the war. The estimated cost of the original scheme was £5,000, of which £2100 was represented by the cost of fencing, memorial gates, and lavatories, and the remainder by the shrubbing, planting, seating and laying out of the park.
This scheme was, however, rejected by the Unemployment Grants Committee as too costly, and eventually a modified scheme, costing £2,000 was approved for grant, though this involved, unfortunately, cutting out the entrance gates and substituting night fencing for a substantial boundary wall. The unemployment Grants Committee ordered the work to be commenced by June 1, 1931, and completed in 10 months. This has been done. The unemployment Grants committee bears 50% of the cost of repayment of principal and interest, or an annual charge of £114, compared with a local annual charge of £80.
The park has been laid out in a formal design, with paths 12 feet wide, cutting the turf into four square plots and a triangular plot. The paths are of asphalt, founded on concrete, with concrete curbing. The boundaries are planted with shrubs, to depths varying from 18 to 25 feet. All the shrubs are flowering varieties and include almonds, thorns, brooms, cherries, laburnums, hollies, burberries, golden privets, golden elders, “Japanese snowballs,” dwarf rhododendrons, and there is a fair sprinkling of evergreens.
Inside the shrubbery, on three sides of the part, is an herbaceous border 8 feet wide, contained 900 plants selected to give a show of blooms in rotation from late spring to autumn. The turf plots are laid out with narrow herbaceous borders of small plants and interspersed are oval flowerbeds for spring and summer planting in a colour scheme. Also planted in these beds are 160 standard roses.
In the centre of each plot is a large bed, about 25’ x 20’, contain altogether 1250 roses in a colour scheme. In addition about 500 roses are to be taken from Coronation Park, Conisborough and transplanted at Denaby. The inside of each plot has been carefully formed up and graded and turfed with sea washed turf of the kind used for bowling greens and tennis courts. On the west side there is a rockery about 140 feet long and 5 feet wide which contains 136 dwarf evergreens and 250 rock plants.
For the spring planting, the oval beds in the borders of the large plots have been planted with 16,000 tulips in 11 separate colours and a number of mixed colours. Among the herbaceous borders 4,000 daffodil bulbs have been set and in a few weeks they should be a glorious sight.
It is intended at the proper time to plant the border adjoining the main road with 120 tall dahlias and 150 dwarf dahlias. For summer planting it is intended to lay out the beds in a triangular plot and two of the square plots with dwarf dahlias in the colour scheme. This will require about 1200 dwarf dahlias in 11 varieties. The other two square plots are to be planted with 10,000 antirrhinums which the council are propagating from seed.
There are 50 seats provided, giving comfortable accommodation for 400 persons. The park is lighted at night by eight electric lamps, symmetrically arranged in the centre to distribute sufficient light for the whole area. The idea of centralising the lighting was to cut down the capital cost of this portion of the scheme. The lamps are automatically lighted at sunset by switch operated by an astronomical clock. Provision has also be in the park for a nursery complete with greenhouses and frames for seed beds.
Experience at full-back Coronation Park, Conisborough, that by leaving the park open and accessible at all times the residents who frequently take a keen interest in its preservation and form a sort of voluntary guard to prevent any wanton damage. The Conisborough Urban Council hope that in time this will apply at Denaby. The park has been provided for the pleasure of residents and it is for them to assist the Council in its preservation.