Heaton Park

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The Heaton Park tramway

Heaton Park at around 600 acres (259 hectares or 2.4 km²), is the biggest park in Greater Manchester, England. It is the grounds of a grade I listed, neoclassical 18th century country house called Heaton Hall remodelled to designed by James Wyatt in 1772, which still stands and is open to the public as a museum and events venue.

It is often claimed to be one of Europe's largest, though it is considerably less than half of the size of parks such as Phoenix Park in Dublin, the Bois de Boulogne in Paris, Sutton Park in Birmingham and Richmond Park in London. It is, however, the largest Municipal Park in Western Europe.

The 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. So it has remained to this day.

The park has recently undergone renovation as part of a Millennium Project. It contains an 18 hole golf course, tennis courts, a boating lake, an animal farm, a pitch and putt, a driving range, woodlands, an observatory, an adventure park, a Papal Monument and a volunteer-run tramway system and museum (operational every Sunday, and Bank Holiday, afternoon during the summer months). Built for the 2002 Commonwealth Games the Park hosts the only flat green bowling greens in Manchester.

At Heaton Park there is also one of the few concrete towers of the UK, the Heaton Park BT Tower.

1 Heaton Park Tramway
2 Activity in the park
3 Controversy
4 External links

[edit] Heaton Park Tramway

The Manchester Transport Museum Society (MTMS) was born in 1961 with the aim of creating a Museum in which the public could view the Society's various exhibits. It was decided that Heaton Park would be a suitable site for such a Museum and proposals were made to the Parks Department of the Manchester City Council.

Unfortunately the original idea, which was to construct a new tramway from Grand Lodge to Heaton Hall, was deemed too expensive. Therefore a new scheme was proposed that would open up the old Manchester Corporation Tramways spur from Middleton Road to the old tram shelter some 300 yards (270 m) into the park. The original track was buried under a layer of tarmac and when cleared would form the basis of the society's operations.

It was in 1979 that the depot building was finished and the trams arrived. The official opening took place on the 28th March 1980.

[edit] Activity in the park

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

In 2006 the Feelgood theatre company returned with a performance of Arthur - King of the Britons. The theatre company also run a series of acting and writing workshops that take place in the park.

[edit] Controversy

Manchester City Council has revealed plans to resite the King David's School in Crumpsall to Heaton Park. A local action group has been set up, named Heaton Park Action, to prevent this taking place, and this group is supported by the Liberal Democrat activist for the area, Barbara Argyropoulos. Source: Higher Blackley Focus, April 2006.