Leisure & Recreation in Hoole
Alexandra Park[1]
The Creation of Alexandra Park, Hoole, 1900-1913
In July 1900 Hoole Urban District Council decided to consult its ratepayers in order to create a Public Park and Recreation Ground.
As a result, under the terms of the 1875 Public Health Act, Hoole Urban District Council purchased a plot of land from Thomas Bater and William Williams ‘containing 6 acres, and 37 perches’ to form Hoole Public Park, which was opened by Mr. Robert Yerburgh, local Member of Parliament on 7th May 1904.
The township of Hoole was developing rapidly: by 1899 three hundred houses a year were being built and the population was increasing. Because a park and recreation ground for the benefit and recreation of the residents and children was seen as an important improvement, after 1904 there were plans to extend the very popular park, at the public expense, almost immediately.
In 1910, the Council purchased a further three acres of land between the established Public Park and Hoole Road. Before 1908, Canadian Avenue was not a through road; it was laid from Hoole Lane to the corner of the Public Park. There was a suggestion that the through road could be named ‘Park Road’, because it would run along the frontage of the land which the Council eventually purchased to extend the park in 1910.
Hoole Urban District Council drew up a set of covenants with landowner Cecil Plumbe Smith. The agreement described what the park would contain, including its set of buildings, upon completion. These covenants remain in force today and bind the land to being used as the park in perpetuity.
Ambitious plans for the park and recreation ground extension, which included a bowling green, formally laid out beds and buildings (the park keeper’s lodge, pavilion, and conveniences) and railings were drawn up.
By 1911, the bowling green, paths and beds were laid out. On 9th January the first park keeper, Mr. Arthur Ellis from Westminster Road, was appointed. He became responsible for opening and closing and maintaining the park, and for enforcing the Council’s by-laws. However, the Park Keeper’s Lodge, bowls pavilion and conveniences remained to be completed.
The Urban District Council had always intended to ask permission of Her Majesty Queen Alexandra to name Hoole Public Park ‘The Alexandra Park’ so on 27th May 1911 the Council wrote to Her Majesty expressing “our deep loyalty and devotion” and asking her “gracious permission” to do so.
On 1st June Sir Arthur Davidson replied on Alexandra’s behalf: “Her Majesty has the greatest pleasure in giving permission for the Public Park in Hoole to be named after her, as it is always a pleasure to her to think that her name is associated with anything that adds to the benefit or welfare of the people. Her Majesty trusts that the new public park will prove a source of health and happiness to all the residents and children, for whose benefit and recreation it is intended”.
On Friday 23rd June 1911, Mrs. Williams, wife of Hoole Urban District Councillor William Williams, officially opened the renamed ‘Alexandra Park’.
This took place during the Hoole Coronation festivities which commenced on Thursday 22nd June to mark the Coronation of Alexandra’s son, King George V and his wife Queen Mary.
Alexandra was styled "Her Majesty Queen Alexandra" following the death of her husband King Edward VII in 1910: in 1911 she remained highly popular with the British people, as she continued the public side of her life, which had started when she became Princess of Wales. She had opened bazaars, attended concerts, and visited hospitals, often on behalf of her mother-in-law, Queen Victoria. She devoted much time to her many charitable causes.
The Lodge, bowls pavilion and conveniences (one ‘Ladies’, one 'Gentlemen’s,' both free) were completed in 1913.
Then Hoole (Alexandra Park) Bowling Club came into being.
Alexandra Park, formed by Hoole Urban District Council for the benefit and enjoyment of the people and the children of Hoole, is, arguably the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the District Council’s legacy to the residents of Hoole today.
Coronation Playing Field[2]
Hoole Urban District Council
The Minute Books of Hoole Urban District Council (UDC) contain the official record of its work.
As the country returned to peace-time conditions after the First World War, the Elms, on Hoole Road, became the Council’s second Town Hall.
The Council’s planning powers and its responsibilities for improving the environment, health and way of life of the people of the District were extended.
It introduced the District Library, and free dental checks and treatments were introduced in the local Primary Schools. ‘Caution’ signs were erected close to the schools, bus services were licensed, and white lines were painted down the middle of certain roads, where it was ‘deemed necessary’, as the Council worked more closely with Cheshire County Council.
The national government set up a Housing Commission to assist Councils in financing the purchase of land and the building of ‘Houses for the Working Classes’, and the Hoole Town Planning and Housing Committee, created in 1919, became responsible for housing.
The Committee was in charge of the acquisition and the use of local land. Smallholdings and allotments, greatly extended during the First World War, were also part of its responsibility. The District required land to be made available, in order to improve provision for the leisure and recreation of the people.
This very important committee included all councillors and became a meeting of the whole council.
Hoole Allotments, 1926
The Section of the Street Plan from Hoole Urban District Council’s Official Handbook, 1947, shows the land already used for the Allotments, which was compulsorily purchased by the Council in July 1926.
The Ministry of Health approved a mortgage of £3,100. The land cost £250 per acre. Walker, Smith and Way acted for the Council. Their accounts show the annual payments made by the Council since taking control of the land during 1917.
Improving Recreation in the District
The Minute Books record that the Town Planning and Housing Committee discussed “the urgent need for a playing field for the youth of the District” in late 1919. Priority was given at this time to purchasing land to erect 60 houses.
The Council experienced growing pressure to make changes to Alexandra Park to accommodate football.
In September 1925, a proposal was put to the Parks and Allotments Sub-Committee of the Council to put in two football pitches near the playing area. The proposal was rejected on the grounds that football required a playing field and was not suitable for Alexandra Park. The Sub-Committee proposed the installation of two seats for the children to use on the south side of the play area.
Hoole Recreation Ground
The 1947 Hoole Urban District Council Street Plan calls the land the ‘Recreation Ground’, the majority of it, like the Allotments, having belonged to the estate of Hoole House. The plan shows the extended Panton Road.
Careful reading of the Title to the land contained in it, which became Coronation Playing Field in 1953, shows that Parcel 1, a narrow strip, was purchased by the Council in 1926, at the same time as the allotments. Today it is part of the access road to Hoole Allotments. As importantly, it is also the footpath from Panton Road to Park Drive South, which skirts Number 3 Bowling Green.
There are currently initial plans to make this footpath safer, by separating vehicles and pedestrians with a footpath through Coronation Playing Field, skirting the other sides of the Bowling Green within the playing field.
The land for the bowling green, on the South side of Panton Road extension, which is 0.429 of an acre, was purchased under the Physical Education and Training Act 1937.
Parcel 2. When Hoole UDC ended in 1954, this parcel of land was called ‘The Hockey Field, now part of Coronation Playing Field’ in the transfer of land assets. It measures 1.46 acres and was acquired under the Physical Training and Recreation Act 1937.
The Cricket Club is clearly marked. Hoole Cricket Club's pitch was here with its own pavilion, which was to become the headquarters of Hoole British Legion. There were also tennis courts by Park Drive South, and in the 1950s a hut for Hoole's Army Cadet Force was built in the same area.
There used to be a path through to the ‘Cricket Field’ from Canadian Avenue which was replaced for access by the extension to Panton Road.
It is shown in the photograph of the house opposite the corner of Panton Road and Canadian Avenue. The old path was the route to the first set of allotments, introduced under the 1908 Allotments’ Act.
Parcel 3. In February 1930 Hoole UDC went on to apply for permission to purchase ‘land for playing fields.’
The sum requested was £3,216 to purchase the additional land and 9.742 acres were to be purchased on the South side of, and fronting Hoole Road. A further £384 was to be found for ‘draining and fencing’.
The Minute Book for 1930 also records the Council deciding to approach the Playing Fields Association for a grant. It was to be twenty-three more years before the Recreation Ground became Coronation Playing Field.
29th April 1953: His Royal Highness, the Duke of Edinburgh opened Coronation Playing Field
Chester City Council registered the Title Plan to the land at the Land Registry in 1999. It shows the Pavilion (still there) and the original footpaths of Coronation Playing Field.
The gateposts to the playing field still carry commemorative plaques.
This photograph shows the current Chairman of Hoole History and Heritage Society, Ralph Earlam (then the drum major of Hoole Army Cadet Force Band), being quizzed by Prince Philip when he opened Hoole Coronation Playing Field on 29th April 1953. Ralph led the Pipe and Drum Band which played the National Anthem.
The pavilion in the background (demolished in 2021) was the William Brown Pavilion, named after a long serving councillor with Hoole UDC.
Standing smartly to attention is Major Harry Pleavin, commandant of Hoole Army Cadet Force and a Hoole Urban District Councillor. Ralph recalls that Harry Pleavin personally adapted his sash to carry E.R. in place of G.R. The Queen had now succeeded her father, George VI, but her Coronation at Westminster Abbey took place on 2nd June 1953, a little over a month later.
The gentleman in the dark suit was Viscount Leverhulme, Lord Lieutenant of Cheshire.
The Formation of Hoole Allotment Colony[3][4]
On 16th July 2017, on its Open Day, Hoole Allotments & Gardeners Association (HAGA) celebrated the centenary of the allotment colony.
A section of the street plan of Hoole (above), taken from Hoole Urban District Council Handbook, 1947, shows the Allotment Gardens. There is an access road from Hoole Lane and access from the junction of Panton Road and Canadian Avenue.
The first ‘four acres plus two roods or thereabouts’ of this land, called Allotments No.1, was leased by the Council from Mr. S. Smith in February 1906. Plot rents were 17 shillings per year, which is about £90 at today’s values.
In the Council, waiting lists, tenancy agreements, rent arrears, weed control, notices to quit, and compensation became part of the business of meetings. By 1909, the Surveyor was responsible for allotments, and managing waiting and lettings lists.
Hoole Council had an interest in the land, which had been part of Hoole House Estate, and which had been used for the Royal Agricultural Show in 1893. To achieve its plans, the Council negotiated directly with the owners and leaseholders of the land which is now Hoole Allotments. Canadian Avenue was completed from Hoole Lane to Hoole Road. Hoole Public Park was extended, renamed Alexandra Park, and completed in 1913. The agent for land which remained in the Vivian Estate held twenty and a half acres, off Hoole Lane, which he would not break up into smaller parcels. Mrs. Kennedy owned the land bordering Hoole Lane, to its south, which she would not lease or sell.
Four additional acres of land were leased from C.P. Smith, heir to S. Smith on the same terms as the land for No.1 Allotment and were called No.2 Allotment.
In January 1913, an approach road, four feet wide was laid from the junction at ‘the top of Bater Avenue’ with Canadian Avenue to give access for the users of the land: cricketers, tennis players, smallholders, and allotment holders. There was disappointment all round because the entrance was supposed to be 10 feet wide. Seasonal arable farming and grazing continued on the land around.
Then, on the eve of the First World War, William Williams, builder, agreed to grant a lease on three more acres of land adjoining that of C. P. Smith, for the same rate, to be ‘pegged out’ as No.3 Allotment.
After the completion of Alexandra Park, Hoole’s Annual Horticultural Show was held there, organised by the Parks and Allotments Committee of the Council.
However, in 1916, Lloyd George was swept to power as head of a coalition government. The country was in the midst of an emerging food crisis, caused by the impact of the German blockades on supplies. Emergency measures had to be introduced to combat severe food shortages and price rises.
In 1916 a Cultivation of Lands Act was passed, so, from January 1917, Hoole Council was preparing to acquire more land for the cultivation of food and use as allotments.
Conscription had been introduced in 1916. The smooth running of local government was affected by the absence of the enlisted men, and the extra demands of the war effort and food crisis. Hoole Council was permitted to raise the salaries and pay of its workforce.
The situation in Hoole in 1917 was exacerbated by the fact that the allotment land already being used to grow potatoes was withdrawn from use in November by an inspector from the Board of Agriculture and Fisheries, due to infection by Potato Wart Disease.
Local Authorities became responsible for implementing Food Control Orders. Employees undertook additional duties to help the local population provide and grow their own food, to control rations, and create emergency stocks of essential supplies, like coal. Sugar distribution and waste paper collection fell to Hoole Council.
In March 1917, the ban on Sunday working on land and allotments under Clause 9 of Allotment Tenancy Agreements had been lifted. A Sub-Committee of five members of the Council, in addition to the Parks and Allotments Committee, was appointed to manage the additional work resulting from Food Control Orders.
In September 1917, soft fruit growers were asked to apply for surplus sugar for making jams and preserves held at the Beehive Hotel. The Council closely monitored each application for bogus requests and ordered the return of any unused sugar: one ‘grower’ was reported to the Council because he did not have any fruit bushes.
From 1917, Alexandra Park and its Park Keeper (using its greenhouse) distributed the plants, prepared for growing on, to local residents. Cabbage, broccoli and Brussels sprouts were made available at 100 plants per shilling (1s).
When two girls were caught picking flowers from the beds in the Park and some boys were caught using bad language and breaking a pane of glass in the greenhouse by throwing stones, their parents were summoned to appear before the Council. Local head teachers were issued with copies of the Council by-laws and were ordered to hold assemblies on the subject in the schools in Hoole District. Any damage was to be paid for by parents.
During the crisis of 1917, the Council gained greater powers to acquire more land, in the same area as existing allotments, under the Cultivation of Lands Order. It compiled a list of those requiring allotments, then the Smallholders’ Society was asked to release all available and suitable land to the Council for use as allotments. The Cheshire Smallholders’ Society Ltd. was operating on the land owned by Mrs. Kennedy, and some of the land owned by C.P. Smith.
From 1917, due to the urgent need to respond to the food crisis and war conditions, the amount of land used as allotments expanded. The land acquired to form Hoole Allotments as we know it today was retained for allotments and compulsorily purchased from the landowners after the war.
At the end of the war, in 1919, the Land Settlement Facilities Act was passed. The renting of allotments was to be open to all, without the requirement for training, and returning service men joined the existing waiting lists for allotments. In Hoole there was also a reawakening of interest in living standards and providing homes for the returning service men and their families.
Fishing for Information[5]
A local resident has asked the Society if it can provide any information about a Cup that he has in his possession. The trophy is inscribed “Hoole Angling Society” and the list of its recipients dates from 1914 to 1938. No records can be found of the Angling Society and a scan of newspapers has revealed no information either.
One would expect that the Society would have had regular meetings, at least annually, to award the trophy and there must have been officials to organised fishing matches and collect subscription fees. One of Hoole’s pubs was their likely meeting place; old Hooligans remember that ‘The Ermine’, ‘The Bromfield’ and ‘The Faulkner’ had angling clubs in the period after the Second World War, but no link has been found to an “Hoole Angling Society”.
In the middle of the twentieth century, it was claimed that angling was the most popular participative sport, and a survey as recent as 2014 confirmed that this may still be the case. Findings were based on the number of fishing rod licences sold and an estimate based on the numbers caught fishing without one. Before the days of social media, lots of boys were taken fishing by their fathers or grandfathers for the first time (and perhaps the last time if nothing was caught), and local fishing spots included:
- The Shropshire Union Canal.
- The River Gowy at Mickle Trafford and Guilden Sutton.
- The River Dee at The Meadows, Farndon and Sealand.
- Flooded Brickworks’ Pits in Hoole Village, one on The Street near Hoole Bank, the other between the Royal Oak (now Toby Carvery) and Old Hoole Hall Farm.
- Flooded Clay Pit at Cotton Edmunds.
- Large ponds off Long Lane in the Plas Newton area.
One place where fishing was not allowed was Flookersbrook. Byelaws approved in October 1876 under the Flookersbrook Improvement Act stated that it was an offence to “fish with net or rod or in any other way interfere with the fish or water fowl”.
Boys who caught the bug were often seen with fishing rods improvised from garden canes and jam jars full of worms dug from the garden. For those who could afford it, fishing tackle was sold at Henry Monk (Gunmaker) at 77 Foregate Street, still operating after 160 years in Queen Street. Martin’s was also another tackle shop in Lower Bridge Street where there were queues early on Saturday and Sunday mornings for the live maggots sold there. In the 1960’s, George Boddy sold fishing gear from his ‘fireplace’ shop at 143 Westminster Road. For a short time more recently, Hoole Angling Centre moved from premises on the corner of Lightfoot Street to a shop next to The Beehive on Hoole Road.
During 25 years of competition, 11 different names appeared on the shields of the Cup, two people actually winning it five times.
The Society has been able to identify the first winner in 1914 as William Holyoak who lived at 22 Walker Street and is listed in the 1911 Census as a ‘Master Cyclemaker’. He had premises at 45 Lower Bridge Street where Directories also show him as a cycle agent and repairer. He died in 1945 aged 73, but his wife was still living in Walker Street in 1952.
Some of the other winners have well known Hoole family surnames and the society is hopeful that readers will be able to identify them, and perhaps through existing family connections learn more about them and Hoole Angling Society. It is a sobering thought that the Cup was first competed for in 1914 – the year of the outbreak of the First World War and the last award was made in 1938, the year before the Second World War began.
If you know anything about Hoole Angling Society and its members, recognise any of the names listed or know of any other information about fishing in Hoole and Newton, the Society would be pleased to hear from you.
References
- ↑ Article by Linda Webb, some parts of which were initially published in ‘Hoole Roundabout’ in January 2016 - http://www.hooleroundabout.com
- ↑ Article researched and written by Linda Webb, March 2020, Hoole History & Heritage Society
- ↑ Article researched and written by Linda Webb, April 2017, Hoole History & Heritage Society
- ↑ Sources: ZTRH Hoole Urban District Council Minutes. Cheshire Archives, and Land Registry Title CH438199
- ↑ Article researched and written by Ralph Earlam and Linda Webb, February 2018, Hoole History & Heritage Society