The Dell, Leamington Spa
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The Dell is a small park in the Milverton area of Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, England. Although it is not nationally (like The Jephson Gardens) or regionally (like Newbold Comyn) well known it is a well used and popular park amongst the Leamingtonians themselves. The park takes its name from the fact that it is situated in a small sunken hollow, or dell.
Up until the 1820s the Dell was simply part of the course of a local watercourse, the Bins Brook. As the town grew, however, a new road was needed to connect the town to its neighbour Warwick. The brook was culverted and the road built higher up to avoid the often muddy ground. There was once a small summer house made from the stones of a demolished local church in the park, but it has now itself disappeared. Like another Leamington park, Newbold Comyn the land stayed in private hands until the Leamington Corporation bought it in 1945. Flowerbeds and paths were laid out in a formal style in the early years but eventually they were grassed over for economic reasons. From the 1970s to late 1990s the park became slightly infamous as gangs of youths would gather there as would some drug users.
However since the formation in 1997 of Friends of the Dell, and in 2006 the Gardening Around Leamington Spa (GALS) group, who have helped the Warwick District Council maintain the park, its good name has returned. Friends of the Dell hold regular parties in the park, the most popular being the early summer and Halloween ones. In the early 2000s the somewhat ageing children's play equipment was upgraded thanks to a council grant. In May 2007 GALS received a £500 donation from Barclays to help weed the steep slopes of the park. In late 2007 the east slope of the park was reinforced with rock filled gabions placed at its foot.
There are now, as there have been since the 1940s and before, shops around the Dell named after it such as Dell News and the Dell Practice.
