Wythenshawe Park

Your Memories

In 2008 a special exhibition opened at the Hall with the support of the Heritage Lottery Fund. It captured people's memories and photographs and told the story of the Tatton family.

Over 40 people contributed, aged between 11 and 91. Here is a selection of their memories. They have been put in order of the age of the contributors, with the oldest memories first.  

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When I came out of the Army in 1947 we were a bit overcrowded at home so I applied for a house. They gave me one at Wythenshawe Park; a prefab. It was actually in the grounds where the football fields are now. There was a stack of them. We lived at number 111 Parklands Road; this was actually in the Park. It was great in the prefab; it had a fridge, and this was after living in a house without a fridge or a bath. It was like being in heaven being in that house.

We left the Park in 1952 but that wasn't the end of my association. I got interested in bowls. I started bowling for the bowling team in 1963 until 2000. I was secretary, president, vice-captain, league delegate - I did everything. In 1986 I won all their trophies, the lot. I never gave in, no matter who I was playing against.

I loved it; I ways did. I still go watching them on Monday afternoons. It was always a very close-knit group. I always tried to go about 4 times a week on the green and practice. I'd go playing on Sundays whilst my wife went to church. Any Monday afternoon, if it's nice, you'll see me sitting in the scooter on the side of the green.

The Park means everything to me. I love going there. I love to watch the bowling. If it rains I get under the trees. Knowing the Park from 1947 you can't push it aside; it's there in your head all the time.

Arthur Buckley

 

My memories of Wythenshawe Park go back a long way to 1930, four years after Lord and Lady Simon presented it, complete with its wonderful Hall, to the people of Manchester. It wasn't long before my mother and father founded the Crown Green Bowling Club, which kept so many people of their generation happy for years, competing against all the other parks.

I also have memories of brass bands playing from bandstands, to the delight of many families making up the audiences.

During the Second World War blitz there was a searchlight and anti-aircraft battery situated in what is now a collection of football pitches near Altrincham Road.

My other wartime recollection is the way the Park was used as an overnight safe harbour for Corporation buses, keeping them well away from Manchester during the Blitz nights of 1942, so that we workers could be taken to our workplaces in town, even though when we arrived in Piccadilly it was a blazing inferno of incendiary-bombed warehouses, factories and shops. Still, Business As Usual was the British wartime motto and I feel the Park played its part in helping to achieve this for Manchester.

Roy Ashworth

 

I remember when I arrived here in 1969 everything was covered in deep snow. It was lovely, absolutely lovely. The Park looked beautiful. It was really thick snow. I remember looking out and seeing rabbits playing in it.

We got this house in 1969. The house looks out right across the Park. There's a stream just opposite the house. There used to be frogs and water-hens. In the morning when you got up you'd see all the rabbits in the field. There was a pelican. It used to come and stand on the edge of the stream. I think it was looking for fish.

We used to get a lot of hedgehogs but you don't see any of them now. And of course, the foxes. I feed them at night but there's not as many as there used to be. I'm very fond of them.

There was a children's corner with an aviary. There were lovely budgerigars. I gave the corner a big black rabbit. I gave them a tortoise as well. I remember there were chickens and a peacock. There were lambs and little goats.

I had six children. We used to come up to the Park. We used to play rounders and of course the boys played football. There was a paddling pool and they had fun days; there were lots of stalls. We had an Easter parade and they had a Shire horse and a cart. We all dressed up one Easter - I made a big hat. We went along Wythenshawe Road in an Easter parade in this cart. As we went we threw sweets for the children on the side of the road.

They used to have an Army display team; every year they came. And it was great. The children loved it. It was on the big field, the other side of the Farm, and that's where the horse shows and the dog shows were.

Anita Royle

  

Every Sunday afternoon they had a five piece band in the Park on the dais. You always saved your very best dress for Sunday afternoon and your very best shoes. My sister and I lived opposite one of the entrances to the Park, Gib Lane, and we used to walk down the lane in stabbing high heels that I borrowed from my mother, and she didn't know; in our very best dresses and go in the Park. It was the highlight of our lives at that age. The war had just finished then and all the boys used to go in suits in those days and it was just lovely because the band used to play lovely music. The only awful part was that your heels dug into the grass when you danced so you were continually apologising to whoever you would be lucky enough to be asked to dance with. We'd dance for two hours every Sunday afternoon and it was absolute bliss. And the band were lovely. They used to cheer us on. That was my happiest memory ever of that Park and those days have gone now.

Rhona Webster

 

I used to bring my mum in her wheelchair every day for a number of years. Whatever the weather she still insisted on coming to the Park. We'd go to the shop - round the back in a big greenhouse - and then I'd bring her to the bowling green and she'd sit and watch the bowlers. She'd be here all day. If she had to stay in she was upset.

When she died the Park staff did a plaque for me and put it on a tree in the Horticultural Centre. She knew all the staff by name in the greenhouses; all the lads and the girls. There's a plaque with my name on too from when I opened the Fern House in the Horticultural Centre.

One of the best days here was Simon's Day. I was dressed as King Charles, in a red rig-out. The atmosphere was marvellous; there were hundreds of people here. At night-time we finished up with a banquet in the Hall.

Altogether now I've volunteered here for seventeen years. The Park means a lot to me. I don't think I would have lasted this long without it.

Joe Hogan

 

I was only two when we came to live in Wythenshawe and it had just started to be the Garden City of Manchester. It was all farms. There were farms everywhere. There was a blacksmith where the little post office is now on Altrincham Road. It was all country lanes. There were no buses.

When my second brother was being born my dad took us in the Park until he thought the baby was born. There was always a 'Stop Me and Buy One' man on the bike selling ice creams. But then as we got older we went in ourselves.

Instead of buying Easter eggs I asked my granddaughters if they'd like a horse-ride. We've been several times. My granddaughter was on a horse and then my daughter said she'd have a go. I'm forty, she said, I've never been on a horse. There was a lady and she was sixty; she said it was her first ride.

The Park always looked so beautiful. The gardens were beautiful, behind the Hall. In the holidays we went in every day having picnics. I've done that with my grandchildren because there are tables near the Horticultural Centre. In later years they've had the carol service at the Farm; that's lovely. For picnics we used to sit on the grass; we'd put a rug down and all get round, with sandwiches and bottles of lemonade. We played rounders mostly. In later years I went on the tennis courts with my brother-in-law teaching me. I was all right, not marvellous but I enjoyed it.

We spent a lot of time on the roundabouts. In the middle there was a thing called the ropes and we loved it. The ropes - there were all ropes hanging down and you got hold of them and you ran round with them. We thought it was marvellous although your hands used to be full of hard skin afterwards. Of course there were park keepers when I used to go in. You got to know them very well.

We have the crowning of Our Lady at the Catholic Church. The Italians lent us their Madonna and it was crowned in Wythenshawe Park one year, near to where that big field is, after you've got the swings. The figure is very big and carried on a platform with four or six men. We take it through town now. Like they have May queens they picked a girl, the Queen, who had been more religious than anyone else all year round. It was someone who lived here on Royal Oak who was chosen.

We've got such a lovely view here. I look out of my window when they're horse-riding and it's a lovely view. When we first came - we've been here 38 years - my husband said, That view is beautiful, we hope they never build on it. The Park has been my life. I think it's lovely when I see the benches with names on; they're people I know.

We went blackberry picking in there every year. They were on all the hedgerows around the fields. Mum made pies from them. Ooh it was like wine; it was lovely.

Hilda Nicholls

 

Granny lived with us and she was a great walker. And we walked and we walked and we walked. One of the places we walked, of course, was into the Park. She loved to ramble around the Park. There was one big tree; two trees had merged into one and created a seat. We used to sit on that. 

Granny always called the Hall 'The big house'. We would go into the Hall and into a big room to the right with the long, long polished table. Then we would mount the staircase. The staircase must have been polished oak, I presume, it really looked lovely. Then upstairs, the bedrooms.

In the Georgian part of the Hall there was an exhibition of dolls houses. All sorts of different dolls houses, where they came from I did not know. Occasionally the man who was in charge of them would open the cases so that we could have a look and peek inside.

At the head of the Park, towards the gate, there were two lions, one on each side. One had a rein. I used to sit astride one of those and pretend I was riding through the bush on the back of the lion.

In those days there was always an hour and a half lunch break and no such thing as school dinners. So we all walked across the Park four times a day. And in the late summer, when the days were longer then in our childhood, there were blackberries to be gathered and eaten on the way home.

During the war one summer the authorities decided that a good idea would be to have what they called Holidays at Home. One of the things that they did was to bring a theatre company from London to perform two Shakespearean plays. They had a screened off area and the backdrop was the Hall. They did The Tempest and As You Like It.  Young as we were it was absolutely wonderful. 

There was an air raid shelter just inside the Park and near the entrance of North Lodge. Two friends of mine dared me to go down the shelter and I went down the steps. I got half way down and landed up to my waist in water. I had to get out. I somehow got out and then I had to walk to the other side of the Park and on to face the wrath of my mother because of my clothes and my good shoes. That was probably the most trouble I was ever in but it is a very vivid memory. And my mother of course had something to say to Mrs Green about Pat and Jo daring me to go down the shelter. 

Maureen Donnelly

 

My father, George, was born in 1894 in Peover Heath. He was probably about 14 or 16 when he came to Wythenshawe. He worked in the kitchen gardens, in the walled garden. There were pears and all that on the walls. All soft fruit used to be grown on the walls, protected from the frost. It was all hand-work, hand dug, no machinery in them days. There were greenhouses there against the wall where the aviaries are now. He didn't work in the greenhouse. In kitchen gardens there was always the indoor men and the outdoor. If you were in the kitchen gardens you had to provide food for the house for twelve months of the year.

One winter he was in the bothy, down where the Community Farm is, and he was sent up above the stables, in the loft, probably to tidy up or something. This other bloke with Dad, he discovered this barrel. When he took the lid off there were apples floating on the top so this other chap said he'd sample it. They must have found a cup or something, sampled it; kept having a drink until it was time to go home. He didn't get drunk but felt really ill and swore he'd never touch the stuff again.

During the spring when it was spring-cleaning time he'd have to go to the Hall. All the male workers would be sent for to move the heavy furniture. He had to take all the carpets out and these would be beaten on a rope and then take them back afterwards.

I don't think he stayed here long. The war could have brought on the move.

I was born in 1933. I remember coming in the Park, fishing in Baguley Brook. You used to bring a jam jar with you and catch 'tiddlers'. They only lasted a day and would then be dead but it was something to do. During the war you couldn't go on holiday but there was always something going on in the Park. Dad always used to enjoy listening to the brass bands. They used to have a big bandstand near by where the paddling pool used to be. They had all the top bands - Fodens, Faireys Aviation.

My dad used to take us into the Hall and I was fascinated going upstairs and in one of the rooms there were cases with dead frogs. They were arranged, they were playing snooker. There was a couple of cases of them.

Once I was on a train, about thirty years ago, and saw Harry Mortimer, a famous brass band conductor. I told him about listening to him in Wythenshawe Park and he said it was a wonderful place to go, to play in a band there.

Graham Sant

 

My grandfather, Charles Browning, took the post of coachman and chauffeur to Thomas Tatton round about 1914. His wife Lucy worked in the Hall and they lived in a tied cottage on Gib Lane with their three children.

When the Hall and grounds were sold to Lord Simon, my grandfather and grandmother were employed by the Manchester Corporation as caretakers and because of the wishes of Thomas Tatton, or actually it would have been the son I think, Peter Tatton, they had the cottage on Wythenshawe Road allotted to them for the rest of their lives at a rent of three shillings a week. They lived there until they were 90.

The laundry building on the left of the house was converted to a tea room, which my grandmother ran with the help of her daughter. They provided pots of tea and cups and saucers and a tray to take into the Park with a two shillings deposit to make sure they were brought back to the tea room.

One of the duties that my grandfather had was to tend the Tatton family tomb in St Wilfrid's Church in Northenden. He made sure that it was kept neat and tidy. In fact I can remember going with him on one or two occasions to do that. In 1934 he retired and was presented with a clock.

During the war I can remember going to the tea room with other people with our sweet coupons which we got. And every Sunday morning, if we were lucky, they had an allocation of chocolate that they sold.

Another memory I have is of the dancing that they used to do in the Park. This would be just after the war I think, on the grass. They would rope off an area of grass on the ringfield and I think there was a van which used to come with a couple of loud speakers on top of it. We danced on the grass there. 

In the summer months they had the best band concerts on a Sunday afternoon and evening, which again were held on the ringfield, where they erected a stage every year. They got all the top bands from everywhere.

I certainly played a lot in the Park. We used to have a game when we were kids called Tracking. We lived about a quarter of a mile away from the Park and we would split into two teams. One team would go off into the Park and then the other team had to try and find them. It was a fair big area so we covered a lot of ground.

Ron Green

 

My mother, Maisie James, and I moved to Wythenshawe from Dudley at the onset of World War Two. My mother had heard of a Mrs Jackson from her sister and she would be happy to take us for a week or two until we found our own place to live. My mother and 'Aunty Gert', as I was to call her, got along so well we never did move until after the war was over.

The old cottage where we lived was one of three that were joined together on Gib Lane and that at one time belonged to Wythenshawe Hall. They had lovely lattice windows on all the windows and a fireplace with an oven built into it in the front room; great bread and other baking were done in it quite often. Aunty Gert would black-lead it every week.

Our garden was kept spotless and neat by Mr Jackson, with straight rows of peonies and other flowers, all in weedless beds; lovely raspberry canes, blackcurrants, gooseberries and rhubarb plants. 'Uncle Joe' would cut the grass with a scythe and then we would jump into the piles of dry grass we collected for him and make forts out of it. Our garden was quite large at the side of the house and ran right up to the large white gate at the end of the lane, which marked the beginning of the Park driveway. Mr Jackson worked for Wythenshawe Park in the gardens and the stable. One day he rode home on a very large cart horse and we all had turns riding the horse slowly up and down the 'Bottom Road' which was directly in front of the cottages. I believe Aunty Gert had once worked in the kitchen of the Hall and she was a great cook.

In the late summer when the apples were ripe in the garden we would sell them to the people going into the Park. I think we charged 1 or 2d per pound and felt very important when weighing them out on a large iron weigh-scale.  We had cooking apples and the best eating apples I have ever eaten.

On the retaining wall behind the small moat in front of the Hall was a beautiful Lion's head. I always 'had' to sit on it when I could persuade someone to lift me up. How I loved that Lion's head.
During the war we had our air raid shelter built at the side of the house and one night when we were in there I remember the ground shaking when a bomb fell close to us and hearing my mother say, It's alright, it's on the other side of the Park.  

After the war our friendship continued with the Jackson family and I spent many holidays at 1 Wythenshawe Cottages, Gib Lane. 

Jean Belluz

 

My great-grandmother was in the Hall kitchens or she was a maid. I think she was a lady's maid and she met this young man and he worked in the grounds. I also heard that he worked with horses, so whether that was combined or not I don't know. She was waving him off one night. They were doing a bit of courting and the servants lived in one little pokey wing and she fell out of the window and broke her arm. Then when they got married the Lord of Wythenshawe Hall lent them his carriage, his horse drawn carriage, to go and get married at St Wilfrid's Church. A lot of my relatives are buried in St Wilfrid's.

For me Wythenshawe Park was a day out. We lived nearby and my mum would pack the jam butties and the bottle of water and we'd head down. We would find a nice spot to have our picnic and my father would organise games, cricket and football, and all the kids that were there around would all join in. I also remember the fairground coming every year. It was the best fairground; it was huge. It was such an event for us.

We always used to go to the cinema on Palatine Road. We would watch the movie and then we'd stop at a fish and chip shop in Northenden and then walk home. But we always walked through Wythenshawe Park so that we could have a canoodle on the way home. It was just a favourite spot for courting couples after they had been to the pictures; you know, go and do whatever people do in the Park. Not me, I must add.

There also used to be a festival there. It was a procession and it was all the Rose Queens and the Rose Princesses, or whatever the other ones were called. It would end up in Wythenshawe Park and Miss Wythenshawe would be chosen there. That was a wonderful day. Then they stopped doing it there and it moved. But for years and years and years they had the procession and they chose Miss Wythenshawe at Wythenshawe Park. There was all the Morris dancing competitions as well; it was wonderful to watch them.

Julie Gilkes

 

My favourite memories are of riding from Piper Hill Riding School, round the Park. When you had worked there for a couple of years you actually got to take rides out and it was wonderful. I remember taking a ride out once and we had just crossed over into the Park and there was a little grey pony and it put its head down and the girl didn't let go of the reins and off she went, plop. Broke all her fingers.

Later on I worked in the Horticultural Centre, selling the plants. It was great, really nice, and sometimes Sheri used to come in with me. She used to sit there in her wheelchair. We had little regulars and the gardens were beautiful. We used to watch the ducks and the moorhens from the pond.

When my daughter was little we used to bring the dog in and climb a few trees and things like that; paddle in the brook and then take the dog home and bath the dog and the child.

I am very proud of our Park. There is something in it for everybody. We need to keep it going. We need to keep the woods in good condition so we can attract animals and plants. It's just lovely for every age, every ability; a beautiful big green space in a noisy, dirty, big city.

Hilary Lloyd

 

I suppose my first memories of Wythenshawe Park were when I used to go down there as a child. We would take my dog and about four or five of us would go and play in Gib Lane Woods, the woods right next to the motorway now. I can remember somebody would get hold of the dog, and myself and a couple of the others would go and hide and then the dog had to come and find us. This was a great game.

I became involved in the Park again around about 1980. The then Director of Parks decided to develop the greenhouse area in a different way. Previously it was used for growing bedding plants. We used to grow about half a million bedding plants for use around the city of Manchester, in all the different parks. Anyway he decided to make a Horticultural Centre; that is what he called it. The idea was to open it up to the public so people could walk through the greenhouses and see how the plants were grown and so on. Then a few years later, about the late 80s, I was put in charge there as the manager and we developed it further. We encouraged schools in and developed different plots. The heather garden, vegetable garden and the greenhouses themselves were changed from being just functional to being educational interpretative, if you like. Where there were once shelves of thousands of bedding plants - which were quite interesting when you first see them but gets pretty boring after the first few - we planted it up. We made little walkways through and planted it up with palm trees and tea plants and sugar and all sorts of things that we deemed would be of educational interest to the schools. It sort of built up from then.

John Steedman

 

In 1948 we moved into the Park as prefabs were built to ease the housing situation after World War Two. These prefabs were like the mobile homes of today and were very modern, with gardens and the benefit of the Park on our doorstep.

I have never forgotten the trees, greenery, beautiful flowers, and fishing in the brook that runs through the Park. Also playing on my bike was a joy. Each day my walk to Rackhouse School and back was through the Park.

In 1952 we moved to Newall Green, still spending most of our weekends at the old Hall and gardens, which to a young child was fascinating. Having an ice cream from the courtyard café was a wonderful treat.

Leaving Wythenshawe in 1964 we came back in 1970 to live in Sharston. I still visit the Park now in summer to see the Farm, lake, ducks and birds; also the horticultural greenhouses to buy my garden plants.

Mary Thomas

 

I was nineteen when I first laid eyes on Wythenshawe Hall. Both my uncles died in their teens so if the house hadn't been sold I, as Peter Tatton's only grandson, would be living here now - a rather terrifying thought.  I was brought up in Scotland and even though I quite often visited my grandparents near Nantwich or stayed at Tatton Hall with the last Lord Egerton, I was never brought over to the Hall.  In our Scottish home we had a few relics of Wythenshawe - many of them now loaned back where they belong - but however interesting they were they somehow didn't seem terribly relevant to anything that really mattered.

So my first visit came late in 1961. I was spending a few days at Dunham Massey with the Earl of Stamford and we were driven over in style by the chauffeur. I'd like to report that when I entered the Hall feudal forelocks were tugged in honour of the young master's return. In reality we made a fairly rapid and uneventful tour and then headed off to inspect the next point of interest. My main memory is really one of unease, a slight tingling of the skin as I confronted at last the ghosts of six hundred years of ancestors. Everyone should enjoy a similar experience at least once.

I made a triumphant return to Wythenshawe in 1973, a mere 12 years later. I'd been travelling around the Continent for three months in a Volkswagen camper enjoying a belated honeymoon, and despite my best efforts to clean myself up I hardly looked the part of the lone survivor of generations of Tattons. As we were leaving the house I casually mentioned to the gentleman at the desk that my grandfather had been the last owner of the Hall but instead of falling to his knees and offering to clean my boots as I'd hoped, he barely looked up from his crossword puzzle and said, Well you can give us a good price for it then.

Nearly twenty years elapsed before my third visit. In 1992 my sons Joshua and Jonathan were 12 and 10, fine Canadian boys, but far too young to appreciate the niceties of English architecture or family history. The houses that I'd stayed in and played in when I was their age were now museums with barriers and ropes. Correct behaviour was very much the order of the day and so I managed to create what soon came to be known as the Holiday from Hell.  Out of my mouth came a constant stream of commands - Don't run, don't touch, don't sit there, don't shout, don't whisper, don't have fun. A photograph taken of us all in the Library at Wythenshawe speaks volumes.

Since the late 90s I've managed to make an almost annual pilgrimage to the Hall until recently, driving down from Scotland with my mother. As the last surviving Tatton of Wythenshawe, and the only member of the family ancient enough to have actually stayed in the house, her memories are far more valuable than mine.  My thoughts are perhaps more directed towards the future. The Hall and the Park are both tremendous assets as a focal point for the entire community but it always strikes me that the Hall itself is greatly underused.  Wouldn't it be wonderful if it could become a centre for all kinds of arts groups - painters, dancers, actors? A house is a living thing - just ask the ghosts - so surely all those creative juices would inevitably breathe new life into the old place? 

Francis Broun

 

I used to come mainly with my elder brother and we used to walk from Moss Side, especially when the fair was on. We walked there because we didn't have much money. We wanted to save it for the fair. We'd go on a few things, especially the penny slot machines, and the waltzers and the bumper cars. Then we would run out of money and my brother would always find money on the floor. I would just keep my eyes peeled on the floor and find nothing, which used to annoy me. 

We used to go in the Hall because it was free. The main thing I can remember there is the cradle; the little crib they used to put the babies in. And the big four poster beds. I used to love looking round the Hall and imagine myself dressed in the kind of dresses they used to wear in those days.

I used to take the children in Nan Nook Woods when they were younger. They practiced climbing trees and walking along fallen ones and jumping across little brooks. In more recent times I've been litter picking there, trying to keep it looking as good as it can because it is exciting when you are young and it is nice for the younger ones to go there now and have adventures like we used to.
 
My brother and I, the one who I used to come to the fair with, we used to come conkering. Not conquering the Roundheads or anything but we used to throw our sticks up at the trees and go back with loads, bagfuls of conkers. We used to take them home and put them in vinegar or put them in the oven or do all sorts to make them the hardest conkers around. I can vouch for Wythenshawe conkers; they are some of the best in Manchester.

Christine McCarthy

 

I remember playing out. I lived there until I was four, playing in the little passageway between the prefabs. We used to play up and down the street. We were 111 and there were quite a few of these little blocks. I remember getting lost; we must have only been about two. We ended up in the main part of the Park. They found me with my little friend Paul and we were playing by a stream.

I used to go and play on the swings. We weren't supposed to go on our own because Mum was at work. My grandma used to come and look after us. I remember once going with my friend on our bikes. We were on the slides and she managed to break her thumb because she let go too soon. We told her mum she'd done it on her bike because we weren't supposed to be there. I don't know if her mum ever found out the truth.

When we lived in the prefabs, the area where the school is was Smiler's Field, after the horse that lived there. That's what we called it anyway.

I'm glad the Park is there for Dad. He can't get very far. It's nice to know he can get there on his scooter.

Joan Theakston (Arthur Buckley's daughter)

 

Whilst I was growing up we had many picnics in the Park, played rounders and cricket, and there were always lots of other families doing the same thing. The Park always seemed to be full of people; walking, sitting, picnicking and playing games.
 
When I was about 14 I used to sneak off during sports to meet a boy in the Park, who has now been my husband for 37 years. We used to walk around the lovely gardens of the Hall, have cups of tea from the little shop next to the Hall with its courtyard and wooden tables, and find a quiet spot where we could do a bit of cuddling. No further, mind, in those days as I lived in fear of my mum finding out.

It was not until I was about 40 that I discovered the wonderful greenhouses and Horticultural Centre at the far side of the Park. I am a keen gardener and I remember once in late Spring going into one of the greenhouses and the smell of beautiful flowers hit you as you opened the door. There were all sorts of bedding plants in a glorious display, giving carpets of colour with little pools and streams running through. I just sat on the bench and thanked God for all he had created.

I will still visit the Park in years to come as it has, and always will be, part of my life.

Brenda Lasch

 

I remember going to the funfair, especially when I was younger. I used to go with a few of my friends and we always used to enjoy it. We used to go on the rides and have a good time and walk round and try different games and things like that.

We have been to the open days that they have at the Park and they were very good; the Shire horses and the Army and Morris dancers and all sorts of things. It was a good atmosphere and everybody was out to enjoy themselves.

(In 2007 Susan took part in the archaeological dig at Wythenshawe Park as part of the Dig Manchester project.) The first thing I did was take photographs of the people that were part of the dig, with the zoom lens or distance lens, just to get the idea of the dig and what people did and how they went about it and all that sort of thing. The first couple of times it was observing people doing the dig and then we went into what was a barn and photographed some machinery that was stored in there.

Susan Parker

 

I was about 10 years old and we used to come every Saturday morning with a group of friends. We used to come into the old kitchen here, where the new cafe is. There was a little old kitchen and we'd sit in front of the iron range and wait for the others to arrive. In the winter we used to make toast in front of that fire and have hot drinks with the gentleman who ran the nature club. His name was Mr Blezard. He was a lovely old gentleman. We used to do all kind of activities in the Park. We used to go inside the old hall and he took us to all the places in the house that weren't open to the public.

I remember that after three months you got a beautiful enamelled badge, red and green, and we used to receive monthly newsletters. I must have come for quite a few years. I'm the eldest of five and I used to bring my younger brothers and sisters. There was a large group of children used to come.

I remember the children's playground. There was a little wooden hut and there was a park keeper there. We used to call him Parkie. He used to just in there and watch over the children. He had a First Aid box so if you fell over or got injured he'd clean your knee or whatever and put a plaster on it.
 
I bring my grandchildren now; they live in Urmston. It's their favourite park, and their mum and dad's favourite park.

Susan Horton

 

I was brought up in Wythenshawe and have spent many happy times in Wythenshawe Park. I can always remember the peacocks; they always had beautiful peacocks and lovely gardens. We used to go walking in the gardens. I used to take my younger brothers and sisters. They had a paddling pool that we used to go into. And in those days it was a bottle of juice and your sandwiches and your biscuits and things like that. You were given a sixpence or something to go in the café. When it was too hot, I couldn't stand it. I used to go a lot in the shade because they had some very enormous trees, those huge high rhododendron bushes, and I would sit in there.

There was the big house that we always went in because everybody said it was haunted. So we all liked to go in the haunted house. I can remember the old fashioned four poster beds and the old fashioned cot. You could picture the people of that time living in there. We were told it was haunted by Oliver Cromwell. I used to love walking and seeing the old oak beams.

Oh, and then the fair always came and we loved that, even though you used to get up to your knee-caps in mud. We loved going to the fair, absolutely loved it.

I think the last time I was in the Park was about a year ago. Somebody had dumped a cat called Bugles and with me being with the Cats Protection League I took it on myself to go and walk the length and breadth of the Park shouting 'Bugles'. I got some very funny looks, especially when I was in the bushes.

The Park meant a lot in my childhood. My mother used to say, get off to the Park, off you go. And we'd be there for hours. We liked the swings. You know they had the swing area and the play area and the paddling pool? We stayed for hours. Hours and hours. 

Ann Marie Mabbley

 

Going to Wythenshawe Park was a day trip out on the bus. We used to splash about in the paddling pool, which was always a must, and afterwards we would go to the ice cream parlour at the side of Wythenshawe Hall. There was a small animal farm then, which was always visited to see if any new animals had been born. You could always spend a full day in the Park enjoying yourself.

Of course, every Easter the fun fair came to the Park and we were allowed to go to that after 'The Stations of the Cross' on Good Friday with our sixpences to spend.

It was just great to take a picnic and sit in the lovely fields, play ball or play ticky-it - the games children just don't seem to play anymore. One of my best memories (because I love history) was going into Wythenshawe Hall which was so old and soooooo exciting..........!

Tricia Towe 

 

We were always going to the Park, especially at weekends and during school holidays. Mum was a fresh air freak and insisted that we always go out and play when it wasn't raining. Some of my earliest memories are going to the Park around Easter time for a picnic day out. We were dressed in our best frocks and shoes and not allowed to splash in the lovely paddling pool. We usually ate our picnic in the area near the duck pond so we could feed the ducks at the same time. I can distinctly remember the smell of hard-boiled eggs wrapped in tin-foil in our picnic bag. It was also one of the rare times we were allowed to drink fizzy pop. The dog always came to the Park with us and we used to have great fun chasing her around in the wooded areas.

I always remember the tearooms and ice cream parlour next to Wythenshawe Hall. It seemed so 'posh' and I loved going in and sitting down for an ice cream or tea and cake - a special treat! We always liked to play in the garden at the back of the Hall. This was great for playing hide-and-seek and general tree climbing, and frog and newt spotting in the ponds.

I also have very warm memories of the Hall itself. Whenever I went to the Park I used to go in and have a good look around. I quite often imagined that I lived there and would sit for hours on the window seats in the main salon on the first floor, letting my imagination run away.

I always loved the fun fair and couldn't wait for it to come to the Park. I just loved the whole atmosphere it created. The smell of candy floss, hot dogs, grease, fumes and the music they played on the rides was always really good. My favourite was the waltzers. My best friend and I met our first real boyfriends at the fair, who we went out with for about a month (which was a long time to go out with someone then!).

Julie Rogers

 

My dad used to bring us as a child. We were born and bred in Moss Side but Sunday outings were Wythenshawe Park. Where Mere Wood is now, opposite the playground, as kids we used to call it the Secret Garden because there were all informal beds in there and little pathways with wooden steps. It was like a little maze. We used to play paper-chase trails in there. Then there was the playground. The only thing I can remember is the paddling pool. It was always freezing and it was always full. You could never get in it.

We used to have the old picnics with jam butties and Corporation pop. And if we were really really good, if we'd behaved all week, Dad would buy us an ice cream from the cafe at the back of the Hall.

We were posh, we came by car. It was a luxury item that my dad had. It never came out of the garage all week; only on Sundays. It was a Hillman Hunter.

Mary Clements

 

Growing up in Wythenshawe, it was part of our life. When we were young we all went climbing in the Park and it was like a scrambling course. We used to go over the field and ride our bikes into the ground. We would always feed the peacocks and put a wish in the wishing well.

We used to climb the trees and everything like. We put pulleys up and would do a load of huts in the woods. There were a lot of greenfly, greenfly and ladybirds, loads of them in the woods and we used to make tree houses. We used to have a bit of fun like really, just enjoyed being youthful as we were. We used to jump the brook and put swings on the trees and swing out the trees like monkeys. We used to have a real good time.

With the Parkie we always used to say, the Parkie is behind you, better watch out, the Parkie is here.  He's going to catch us doing something wrong. 

We played football, volleyball; usually would go in the paddling pool and paddle about and have a bit of fun with that. We used to play I Spy, Hide and Seek, Manhunt, all these things. You know we used to make up games. If we didn't have any games we could do, we would make one up like.

The house was brilliant. We always used to try and find a secret panel; always looking for the secret entrance. There is supposed to be a ghost in there as well; a lady ghost. We used to go there at night sometimes to scare ourselves to death like. That was one of our biggest dares, to go in the Park on your own in the dark and come out alive.

Joseph O'Loughlin

 

Every year the Army used to come into Wythenshawe Park and put on like a military tattoo. You could go on a harness and parachute a short distance. There were also the tanks, a firing range and all sorts of activities associated with the Army. As kids we all thought we were action men.

When the stable lads were away I used to look after the Shire horse whose name was Ben. I used to walk him in the mornings to the front of the Hall where the best grass was and in my head I was playing Ivanhoe coming back from battle with a big heavy horse. Ben was a very gentle horse although he must have weighed about 2 tonnes and his best friend was a pony who was a quarter of the size of him.

When I was here there was only ever one Shire horse. He was employed for taking the cart that did the bin round in the Park. At weekend we used to swap carts and he was like the bus. Kids would pay about 10p for a trip. He used to do a lot of ploughing too. He died when he had gallstones; went in for an operation and didn't wake up.

As a young lad I visited the Park all the time. We used to make rope swings over the streams. We visited the Hall every week to find secret passages. We used to play we were the Royalists attacking the Cavaliers. We made up loads of stories in the Hall gardens because we knew about people finding skeletons there years ago. It was a complete adventure ground.

Years later when my children were born we used to come to look for squirrels and different birds, and feed the ducks. Then I'd tell them all the different stories, usually the ghostly ones, and they had a whale of a time. On nights when the mist had come in early we used to go looking for the ghost of Mary Webb in the Hall gardens. I never actually had any ghostly experience - but didn't tell the kids that.

Colin Evans

 

We went to the Park quite regularly but I can distinctly remember one hot summer day we went to the paddling pool with my mum, sisters, auntie and cousin. We were only supposed to paddle but ended up getting our knickers wet. I remember the horror of having to travel home on the bus with no knickers on and only a cotton shirt-dress.

I also used to meet two of my earliest boyfriends at the Park. Ray and I met in September and we used to hold hands and walk through all the fallen leaves for hours.

The fun fair was always great; the noise and the smell of axle grease always led to a feeling of excitement.

Hazel Garside

 

I have particularly fond memories of Wythenshawe Park as it was the place I met my husband.

Back in 1976, when I was just 11, I used to look after the ponies at the stables. At aged 14 I met a handsome young man there who I was later to marry.

He had started work at the Park as an apprentice gardener. Although we sometimes had a good laugh together my adoration was totally unreciprocated. He was nearly 17 and I was 'just a kid' who would follow him around like a lost puppy. It was common knowledge amongst his workmates that I fancied him and they used to rib him about it, which just made him embarrassed and, eventually, determined to avoid me.

I was heartbroken when, after a couple of years, he was transferred to another park. Meanwhile I left school and went to Wythenshawe College. At lunchtimes and free periods I would sometimes pop into the Park to say hello to the ponies and some of the lads I still knew. One day, one of the gardeners said to me, He's back. My heart skipped a beat as I knew exactly who 'He' was. I was told where I could find him - and the rest is history.

Isabel Broughton

 

I used to come here every Easter as a child with my parents and go on the fairground. I remember the candy floss. As I grew up I took my son to the fairground.

When I was a kid they used to have a paddling pond. It was warm and gritty; always busy. I also remember having to wait to go onto the swings because there was a queue.

I remember the cows. These were in a field next to Gib Lane, where the horses are now for the stables. It was such a rare occurrence to see cows in Wythenshawe.

Jane Clinton

 

I remember coming to the pets' corner with my dad and my mum. And the peacock, definitely the peacock. Waiting for it to open its tail to show all its feathers; it was fantastic. The guinea pigs and rabbits; feeding them grass that I used to pick.

The other thing I used to like about coming here was the little pool, the paddling pool. I couldn't wait to get in it. My dad used to tell me this story that someone he worked with used to paint the pool. This man had to paint it and it had to be when there were no children about. It was blue; bright turquoise blue.

The other thing we used to do every single Easter, without fail, was come to the fair. My dad always wanted to go on the red train. I remember going on it, ringing the bell. It was always a big treat to come.

As I got older I used to come with my friends. We used to bring children from the street, bring them on picnics. I would have been a teenager then. We used to picnic on the benches in the play area and I always remember eating near the statue. We used to sit down on the ground. I remember one of the little girls being scared of it. We had cheese sandwiches, crisps, and apples and things like that, cartons of drinks.

Going back a bit earlier I remember going into the Hall with my mum and dad. I used to think it was so big and grand. The big four poster bed and the rails where you couldn't go. And my dad used to say, you can't go past that rope. I'm sure they had a cradle in there, a little wooden cradle. I used to imagine the people who used to live there, how they would live years ago, all the landowners and rich people.

When my daughter was little we used to bring to her to see the animals. My mum had died and we used to bring my dad. It was the only place we could get him to in his wheelchair. We used to bring him out. It's nice remembering those last days. We used to have ice creams; it always had to be a 99.

The Park is all happy memories for me, happy times. The bonfires, that's another thing we came to. Just really happy memory, good times. The weather - it always seemed to be nice; playing cricket, football, flying kites, all those things you used to do.

Donna Cunneen

 

I remember as a toddler in the 70s learning to swim in the paddling pool at the Park playground on a warm summer's day. I can remember the smell of the pool, the laughter of the children and the thrill of so much water! When I was older the playground had the highest slide 'in the world', so high that it gave me the feeling of vertigo looking down the side.
 
In my teens me and some friends played pitch and putt, tennis, and then, if the time of the year was right, we picked conkers - bags of them.
 
But the fondest memory would be being sat on the Lion's Head on the wall by the Hall by my dad.

Arthur Buxton

 

My first memory of the Park was about 2 to 3 weeks after I started working in Wythenshawe in 2005 and I saw the first Wythenshawe Festival of my life. I remember realising how large the Park was. I think the main field in particular could eat a stadium. And I remember, as I drove away, seeing the heavens open and finding out that after I'd gone the entire place had flooded out and they'd had such a bad job trying to get the actual stage off the field at the end of the event on the Sunday. So my first impression is of a very, very hot day, a massive, massive field and then this incredible torrential downpour.

The year after I actually organised the 2006 Festival. It was one of the best events that I have ever been involved with and I worked very closely with the people from the Parks on that. In the end, over a two day period in July, we had something like 10,000 people at the Festival.

On the main field we had a big stage. We had young people on the stage on Saturday during the day; rapping, MC-ing, child dancers, and things like that. On the Sunday we had what I would call the slightly more mature bands, like the local rock bands. We had a stage collapse slightly on the Sunday. There was an inflatable canopy above the stage and the generator gave out, so the whole thing started to deflate. We got another generator delivered and got the stage re-inflated and the bands went back on. It was really nice because you saw families sat down in front of the stage, all having snacks, drinks, and things like that, and really just chilling out. Even on the Sunday evening after the entertainment was over, the families stayed there as the sun was going down. It was really magical.

We had a special area for young families and older people at the back of the Hall. We put up some marquees and had gentler music, things like brass bands, jazz quartets and lady harmony singers.

Part of the Festival that everybody always wants is the Civil War re-enactment. I think it is Sir Thomas Tyldesley's Regiment of Horse and Foote, spelt with an 'e' on the end of foot. They come along and they camp and, I don't know if I should say this, but I don't think they really wash either for a weekend. They live in tents at the back of the field as they would have done in those times and they re-enact the siege of Wythenshawe Hall. I think it is one of those things that people like to take their children to. They remember from when they were younger and they want their children to see it.
Dawn Warriner

 

My memories go back quite far because I have lived in Wythenshawe nearly all my life and always lived quite close to Wythenshawe Park. I remember going to the fairs and playing football and making dens. A lot of the time we used to go to Wythenshawe Hall when it was open quite a lot; going in there and thinking where all the tunnels were supposed to go to.

I actually ended up working at Wythenshawe Park for 7 years as a Park Warden, so I ended up telling younger children about the history of the Hall and where the tunnels were supposed to be. I used to keep them guessing.

I remember summertime purely because that was the best time for making dens in the woodlands, particularly in the Nan Nook Woods which were really hidden and you could get a real feel for being out in the wilds, somewhere where nobody could find you. You could create a den and after two hours building it, you would spend five minutes kicking it in.

Any open space is important in a built up area. The Park is a place where you can do a lot, from sport to having fun, to coming together for an event. It sort of brings everybody together. Working there made me extremely passionate about improving it. I liked to see kids making dens and climbing trees. I wasn't the usual Parkie, you know, telling them to get down and get out. I sort of let them get on with it but just told them to be careful. I will probably take my own kids there eventually when I get to have some.
Gavin Evans

 

As a teenager we used to play games of 'Chicken' in the Park at weekends. There are loads of ghost stories connected to the Hall, so we used to dare each other to go through the Park on our own, in the dark at night. The adrenaline rush was quite amazing by the time you got to the other side. You were so scared by this point it was untrue.

As a very small child I used to come here with my mum into the Horticultural Centre. It was like travelling to another world. Not only did the mile journey here seem like an age away (as it does when you're a child) but then to walk into the paradise of jungle plants all around you; the heat, the smells of all the different plants, the humidity, the giant leaves of the banana trees, the sound of running water, birds singing and the innate sense of just being surrounded by leaves, almost enclosed by them; it was a transformation into a magical mystical world.

My middle-child age was all about adventure in this Park with my friends; climbing trees, making dens, exploring around the Hall looking for secret passageways, playing tick, making rope swings over the brook and getting dirty; learning to take risks and to challenge yourself.

Wythenshawe Park has played such a large part in all of my life.

Philippa Lloyd

 

When I was small my favourite part was the Farm. I liked the animals; the smells. My favourite bit now is the gardens, where the greenhouses are. They're good to play in and I like the small pond.

I like the Safari Walk because of all the different things in there like the cactuses and things like that. In the pond there, that's where we saw frogspawn.

I like the play park. My favourite thing is probably the climbing frame.

The first time we came and saw the gardens we came across them by accident. I was about five. I thought the Park was massive compared to the one in Urmston that we live near.

Lucas Horton (Susan Horton's grandson)

 

I've lived in the Park all my life. Mum's told me about one Bonfire Night when she put bin bags on us to keep us dry, it rained so hard. They were jackets and pants made out of bin bags. I don't remember it. I was about five or six.

I remember once there was a terrapin in the pond in the Horticultural Centre and we spent ages trying to get it out. We set a trap and finally got it out; it took us about six months. We had like a cage and we had tortoise food at the end. We needed to get it out because it was eating all the fish. It came from a member of the public; they had just put it in there. We put it in the bigger outside pond. There were two other terrapins in there. It's still there.

The animals sometimes get out of the Farm. One night I was out in my pyjamas because the cows had got out. My mum got a call from Security to get them back in. What was really embarrassing was a lad from school saw me running round in my pyjamas. I had to stay at the back of everyone because we were scared they were going to start charging. We chased them back from Gib Lane. We were scared they were going to go on the motorway. Kids had let them out of the field.
 
I remember one night my mum got me and my brother up and she took us outside. I thought something was wrong. Mum took us outside and it was snowing. Me and Richard were having snowball fights.

Sarah Clements (Mary Clement's daughter)

 

And finally, a poem...

Memories of Wythenshawe Park

Oh how we loved those days in the sun,
picnics in the Park for everyone.
A splash in the paddling pool was always a treat,
even though the water only covered your feet.
The fun fair at Easter, where you could win a fish.
acres of space to do as you wish.
The summer fete and shakers made of crepe paper,
marching bands, ice cream and the judging came later.

Teenage walks in the gardens, carpets of full colour,
cream teas in the teashop until you could not get fuller.
A visit to the great Hall with huge furniture and art,
the pets' graveyard, the rockery and pond played their part.
The rhododendrons in their glory,
the trees of all shades
sticks in a young girl's memory and never fades.

Years later, she walks through a wonder of plants,
in the greenhouse and gardens, many thrills it still grants.
The Home Farm, with piglets,
horses to ride,
a husband and children are now by her side.

She will always remember this wonderful place,
the picnics, the fun, the fresh air and the space.
Wythenshawe's jewel in the crown
and Tatton's Wythenshawe Hall.
Fond memories for her and fond memories for all.

by Brenda Lasch