Old Deer Park
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Old Deer Park is an area of open space to the north of Richmond, bordered by the River Thames.
Owned by the Crown Estate, the park forms part of a larger historic landscape stretching from Richmond to Kew and across the river to Twickenham and Isleworth.
In the mid sixteenth century, Richmond Palace had been Elizabeth's favourite residence and in 1574 she had granted "our park of Isleworth otherwise called the Newe Parke of Richmonde" to Edward Bacon.
After the death of Elizabeth I in 1603 at Richmond, a hunting park was established by King James I of England by adding monastic land to the existing 87 acre park of (sometimes referred to as Twickenham Park), creating an area of 370 acres known as The New Park of Richmond . It acquired the prefix; Old with the establishment of Richmond Park by Charles I in 1637.
The construction of the railway in the 1840s cut Old Deer Park off from Richmond Green (except by a railway footbridge) and then the "Chertsey Arterial Road" (A316) sliced through the park in the 1930s, worsening this separation - the south east corner near this footbridge later being turned into a council car park.
The park was used to accommodate 5,000 of the 8,000 Scouts attending the 1st World Scout Jamboree in 1920.
