Platt Fields Park

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A view of Platt Fields Park

Platt Fields Park is a park off Wilmslow Road in Fallowfield, Manchester, England. It is home to Platt Hall, and was originally known as the Platt Estate or the Platt Hall Estate. It is one of Manchester's principal parks, and used to be known as "the lungs of the city". Over 43 languages are spoken round the park.^[1]

1 Description
2 Platt Hall
3 History
4 See Also
5 References

[edit] Description

The lake, and the central island sanctuary

The centrepiece of the park is a large pleasure lake, which is used for boating and fishing. The lake has an island sanctuary in the middle, as well as a lakeside visitors' centre and a boathouse.^[2] The park also contains Gore Brook and part of the Mickle Ditch.^[3]

The park contains a variety of gardens, including community orchard gardens, which contain ferns, roses and heathers. There is also an educational garden and an environmental area, as well as Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee gardens^[2] and an Eco Arts garden near to the boating lake. There is a Shakespearean garden located in the Ashfields part of the park in the south east corner that was designed to be from the time of Shakespeare. The Ashfields area also has an arch from the nave of Manchester Cathedral, which was previously located at Manly Hall for a time.^[4]

There is a labyrinth and picnic area, a Veterans' pavilion and a pair of children's playgrounds.^[2] One playground is for toddlers up to age 5, with the other for kids up to the age of 9. Both are located near to the Lakeside Centre.^[4] In terms of sports facilities, the park has a pair of bowling greens and courts for basketball, five-a-side, roller hockey, tennis, as well as a mini soccer pitch, cycle pathways and a skate park.^[2] A planning application for a BMX track in the park was approved on 15 March 2007; it will be constructed at the south end of the park.^[5]

There are three dedicated show fields in the park, which have the infrastructure to host large and small scale national and local events. Events hosted in the park include the Manchester Mela and Eid Festivals, as well as annual fireworks and bonfire displays.^[6] Until 2003 the site hosted the Manchester Flower Show.^[3] Facilities-wise, the site has a car park with disabled parking and toilets. The site also has a park office.^[2]

[edit] Platt Hall

Platt Hall was the home of the Worsley family for 300 years. The current hall, a listed Georgian building, was built by John and Deborah Carill-Worsley to the designs of Carr of York, later moderated by Timothy Lightoler, in 1746 at a cost of £10,000. It replaced a timbered black and white building that had been the home of Charles Worsley, one of Cromwell's lieutenants and Major General for Lancashire, Cheshire and Derbyshire during the interegnum.^[7]^[8] The hall is currently (2008) closed for major building work and will reopen in October 2008.^[9]

Platt Hall contains the Manchester Costume Gallery, also known as The Gallery of Costume. The collection spans the era from the 17th century to the present day, covers both men, women and children, and includes both high fashion and the dress of working people. The collection is still growing, and includes present-day designer wear, sports and leisure clothes and underwear.^[8] The collection consists of over 20,000 items, and is divided up into a series of themes, which consist of "Designers", "Dressing Up, Dressing Down", "Clothes for Work", "Recycled Fashion", "Sexuality", "Materials and Making", "Close Up", "Sports and Leisure" and "Underwear".^[10]

[edit] History

The first known mention of the area is from 1150, at which time the "lands of Platt" were given to the Knights of St John by "Matthew, Son of William". Gore Brook is mentioned as being present at the time. The Platt family obtained the estate in 1225, and owned the land for the next 400 years. In 1625 it passed to the Worsley family, and was then a country park bordering on the Cheshire Plain, and called the Platt Hall Estate. The park was landscaped by William Emes in 1768^[11]. The Worsley family owned the estate until 1907.^[3]

By the early twentieth century, the site was a country park with a mansion, though the estate was gradually surrounded by ever increasing housing, causing Elizabeth Tindal-Carill-Worsley to put the estate on the market in 1907. It soon became apparent that the park was at grave risk of being sold for development and there was even mention of tearing down the Hall and using the bricks for housing. William Royle was axiomatic in mobilising support for the Corporation to purchase the estate in order to save the park and house for future generations. This led to the Lord Mayor of Manchester calling a town meeting, at which it was decided to purchase the estate for public parkland, leading to its estate purchase in 1908 at a cost of £59,975.^[3]

During a time of high unemployment during the winter of 1908 and 1909, over 700 men relaid the park, including planting banks with shrubs and trees, inverting the Gore Brook and creating a lake and island covering just over 6 acres. The park, named Platt Fields Park, was formally opened on 7 May 1910 by the Lord Mayor of Manchester, Sir Charles Behrens. At some point over the following five years, a half acre paddling pool was constructed. The park was used for a variety of sports, including tennis, football, bowling and cricket. More work was carried out during another time of high unemployment, between 1919 and 1925, when the park and playing fields were levelled, and bowling greens and tennis courts were constructed, as well as a bathing pool. A Speakers' Corner was once located near to the adjacent Trinity Church.^[12] The park had a tennis pavilion, which was built in 1926, but was demolished in January 2006 after being empty for several years while waiting to be converted for use by disabled children by the Social Services Department.^[1] The park also used to have a Pets Corner and Animal Park, as well as a children's playground, a cafe, and rose gardens and herbaceous borders.^[1]