Vivary Park
Encyclopedia
Vivary Park is a public open space
in Taunton
, Somerset
, England.
The Sherford Stream, a tributary of the River Tone
, flows through the 7.5 hectares (18.5 acre) park, which is located near the centre of the town. It contains two main wide open spaces, as well as a war memorial
dating from 1922, a miniature golf course
, tennis court
s, two children's playground
s, a model railway track
which was added in 1979, and an 18-hole, 4620-yards, par-63 golf course
. The park includes tree
s, rose beds and herbaceous border
s, with around 56,000 spring and summer bedding plants
being used each year. The rose garden includes the Royal National Rose Society
Provincial Trial Ground.
The park is a garden of the European Garden Heritage Network
.
, or vivarium
, for Taunton Priory
and Taunton Castle
. Although nothing remains above ground of these lakes, they are the origin of the name Vivary. Entries in pipe rolls
of the 13th and 14th centuries show that bream, pike
, and eel
s were supplied from the vivarium to the Castle and sometimes to the royal household. These sources identify two ponds, the magnum vivarium, or great pond, which probably occupied the low-lying area of the present-day golf-course, and the parvum vivarium or little pond, within what is now the park proper. When a trench for a new sewer was cut through the park and its golf course during the 1970s, archaeologists were able to identify the deposits of silt
left behind by the medieval fish ponds.
In 1810 a Mr William Kinglake of Taunton, a lawyer
who was also a partner in a local bank, bought the park from the estate of John Hamnett, together with a twenty-roomed house called Wilton House, built in 1705, which is still standing. The gates of the house were at the end of the town's High Street, while its parkland stretched away from the town towards the Blackdown Hills
, with chestnut trees and a stream. Kinglake was the father of the writer Alexander William Kinglake
, who grew up at Vivary. The Kinglake family called the property 'The Vivary'.
Long before the park was publicly owned, it was known as Vivary Park and was used for some public events. It was lent by William Kinglake to provide the site of the West of England Show
of 1852. He was also sympathetic to the Bristol and Somerset Total Abstinence Association and allowed the park to be used for its Public Tea Meeting and Demonstration on 17 August 1852. The first exhibition of the Vale of Taunton Deane Horticultural and Floricultural Society was held in the park on 21 and 22 June, 1855, and in 1883 a ten-day 'Temperance mission
' was held in the park, at which "as many as 1,500 new pledges" of abstinence from alcohol were made.
In the mid 19th century the park contained a Crimean War
cannon
known as the 'Sebastopol Gun', which was fired on great occasions.
In 1875, a local author wrote with real foresight –
Two decades later, Vivary Park was still owned by the Kinglake family
, but in 1894 they sold it to the Municipal Borough of Taunton for £3,659 (equal to around £230,000 in 2010), to encourage healthier lifestyles and to provide recreational opportunity for the urban working class, as set out in the Public Health Act of 1875
.
The arrangement of the park is still very much as was when first laid out in 1895. It is entered through a pair of cast iron
gates, dating from 1895, made by the Saracen Foundry
of Glasgow
, who also made the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain of 1907. Since 2000 the fountain has been restored, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund
, and the park was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 2002. The bandstand
also dates from 1895, while two huge oak trees
were planted in 1902 to mark the coronation
of King Edward VII
. Just within the main gates, the war memorial
was erected in 1922.
Taunton Flower Show
has been held annually in the park since the 19th century. It has been described as "The Chelsea
of the West", and attracts around 24,000 visitors over its two days.
In 1974, Frederick Jago, a man of 38, broke the world record
for non-stop walking by covering a distance of 304.26 miles within the park. This took him 116 hours, 34 minutes, between 27 September and 2 October.
The current lake was created during the 1980s. Originally constructed as a stormwater
measure, it is now home to several species of water birds, including mallard
s, moorhen
s, ruddy
and laysan duck
s, Chinese geese
, and kingfisher
s.
Public open space
Public Open Space is often referred to by urban planners and landscape architects by the acronym 'POS'. It has a meaning similar to public park, but varied interpretations of the term are possible.'Public' can mean:...
in Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
, England.
The Sherford Stream, a tributary of the River Tone
River Tone
The River Tone is a river in Somerset, England, which is about long. It rises at Beverton Pond near Huish Champflower in the Brendon Hills, and is dammed at Clatworthy Reservoir. The reservoir outfall continues through Taunton and Curry and Hay Moors, which are designated as a Site of Special...
, flows through the 7.5 hectares (18.5 acre) park, which is located near the centre of the town. It contains two main wide open spaces, as well as a war memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
dating from 1922, a miniature golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
, tennis court
Tennis court
A tennis court is where the game of tennis is played. It is a firm rectangular surface with a low net stretched across the center. The same surface can be used to play both doubles and singles.-Dimensions:...
s, two children's playground
Playground
A playground or play area is a place with a specific design for children be able to play there. It may be indoors but is typically outdoors...
s, a model railway track
Rail transport modelling
Railway modelling or model railroading is a hobby in which rail transport systems are modelled at a reduced scale...
which was added in 1979, and an 18-hole, 4620-yards, par-63 golf course
Golf course
A golf course comprises a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, fairway, rough and other hazards, and a green with a flagstick and cup, all designed for the game of golf. A standard round of golf consists of playing 18 holes, thus most golf courses have this number of holes...
. The park includes tree
Tree
A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance. A minimum height specification at maturity is cited by some authors, varying from 3 m to...
s, rose beds and herbaceous border
Herbaceous border
A herbaceous border is a collection of perennial herbaceous plants arranged closely together, usually to create a dramatic effect through colour, shape or large scale. The term herbaceous border is mostly in use in the United Kingdom and the Commonwealth...
s, with around 56,000 spring and summer bedding plants
Flowerbed
A flowerbed is an element of many gardens. A flowerbed is a garden area especially prepared for growing flowers. The area is typically marked off, often by low-lying structures of brick or similar materials, designed to highlight the flowers and reduce the spread of weeds...
being used each year. The rose garden includes the Royal National Rose Society
Royal National Rose Society
The Royal National Rose Society is dedicated to the cultivation and appreciation of roses. It was founded in 1876 and is based in St Albans in England...
Provincial Trial Ground.
The park is a garden of the European Garden Heritage Network
European Garden Heritage Network
The European Garden Heritage Network is a nonprofit organization established in 2003 within the EU-Programme INTERREG IIIB NWE to foster transnational co-operation in regional development and cultural heritage...
.
History
The park stands on land that was formerly a medieval fish farmFish farming
Fish farming is the principal form of aquaculture, while other methods may fall under mariculture. Fish farming involves raising fish commercially in tanks or enclosures, usually for food. A facility that releases young fish into the wild for recreational fishing or to supplement a species'...
, or vivarium
Vivarium
A vivarium is a usually enclosed area for keeping and raising animals or plants for observation or research...
, for Taunton Priory
Taunton Priory
Taunton Priory, or the Priory of St Peter and St Paul, was an Augustinian monastery founded c. 1115 by William Gyffarde , Bishop of Winchester and Chancellor of England near Taunton, Somerset, England....
and Taunton Castle
Taunton Castle
Taunton Castle is a castle built to defend the town of Taunton, Somerset, England.It has origins in the Anglo Saxon period and was later the site of a priory. The Normans then built a stone structured castle, which belonged to the Bishops of Winchester...
. Although nothing remains above ground of these lakes, they are the origin of the name Vivary. Entries in pipe rolls
Pipe Rolls
The Pipe rolls, sometimes called the Great rolls, are a collection of financial records maintained by the English Exchequer, or Treasury. The earliest date from the 12th century, and the series extends, mostly complete, from then until 1833. They form the oldest continuous series of records kept by...
of the 13th and 14th centuries show that bream, pike
Esox
Esox is a genus of freshwater fish, the only living genus in the family Esocidae — the esocids which were endemic to North America, Europe and Eurasia during the Paleogene through present.The type species is E. lucius, the northern pike...
, and eel
Eel
Eels are an order of fish, which consists of four suborders, 20 families, 111 genera and approximately 800 species. Most eels are predators...
s were supplied from the vivarium to the Castle and sometimes to the royal household. These sources identify two ponds, the magnum vivarium, or great pond, which probably occupied the low-lying area of the present-day golf-course, and the parvum vivarium or little pond, within what is now the park proper. When a trench for a new sewer was cut through the park and its golf course during the 1970s, archaeologists were able to identify the deposits of silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
left behind by the medieval fish ponds.
In 1810 a Mr William Kinglake of Taunton, a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
who was also a partner in a local bank, bought the park from the estate of John Hamnett, together with a twenty-roomed house called Wilton House, built in 1705, which is still standing. The gates of the house were at the end of the town's High Street, while its parkland stretched away from the town towards the Blackdown Hills
Blackdown Hills
The Blackdown Hills are a range of hills along the Somerset-Devon border in south-western England, which were designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty in 1991....
, with chestnut trees and a stream. Kinglake was the father of the writer Alexander William Kinglake
Alexander William Kinglake
Alexander William Kinglake was an English travel writer and historian.He was born near Taunton, Somerset and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge...
, who grew up at Vivary. The Kinglake family called the property 'The Vivary'.
Long before the park was publicly owned, it was known as Vivary Park and was used for some public events. It was lent by William Kinglake to provide the site of the West of England Show
Royal Bath and West Show
The Royal Bath and West is a agricultural show for the West of England. Held every year at its permanent show ground near Shepton Mallet, Somerset, it is one of a number of County shows in the United Kingdom...
of 1852. He was also sympathetic to the Bristol and Somerset Total Abstinence Association and allowed the park to be used for its Public Tea Meeting and Demonstration on 17 August 1852. The first exhibition of the Vale of Taunton Deane Horticultural and Floricultural Society was held in the park on 21 and 22 June, 1855, and in 1883 a ten-day 'Temperance mission
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
' was held in the park, at which "as many as 1,500 new pledges" of abstinence from alcohol were made.
In the mid 19th century the park contained a Crimean War
Crimean War
The Crimean War was a conflict fought between the Russian Empire and an alliance of the French Empire, the British Empire, the Ottoman Empire, and the Kingdom of Sardinia. The war was part of a long-running contest between the major European powers for influence over territories of the declining...
cannon
Cannon
A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...
known as the 'Sebastopol Gun', which was fired on great occasions.
In 1875, a local author wrote with real foresight –
Two decades later, Vivary Park was still owned by the Kinglake family
Alexander William Kinglake
Alexander William Kinglake was an English travel writer and historian.He was born near Taunton, Somerset and educated at Eton College and Trinity College, Cambridge...
, but in 1894 they sold it to the Municipal Borough of Taunton for £3,659 (equal to around £230,000 in 2010), to encourage healthier lifestyles and to provide recreational opportunity for the urban working class, as set out in the Public Health Act of 1875
Public Health Act 1875
The Public Health Act 1875 was established in the United Kingdom to combat filthy urban living conditions, which caused various public health threats, including the spread of many diseases such as cholera and typhus. Reformers wanted to resolve sanitary problems, because sewage was flowing down the...
.
The arrangement of the park is still very much as was when first laid out in 1895. It is entered through a pair of cast iron
Cast iron
Cast iron is derived from pig iron, and while it usually refers to gray iron, it also identifies a large group of ferrous alloys which solidify with a eutectic. The color of a fractured surface can be used to identify an alloy. White cast iron is named after its white surface when fractured, due...
gates, dating from 1895, made by the Saracen Foundry
Saracen Foundry
The Saracen Foundry was the better known name for the Possilpark, Glasgow based foundry company W MacFarlane & Co. Ltd, founded and owned by Walter MacFarlane. Macfarlane's was the most important manufacturer of ornamental ironwork in Scotland....
of Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, who also made the Queen Victoria Memorial Fountain of 1907. Since 2000 the fountain has been restored, with funding from the Heritage Lottery Fund
Heritage Lottery Fund
The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...
, and the park was re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II in May 2002. The bandstand
Bandstand
A bandstand is a circular or semicircular structure set in a park, garden, pier, or indoor space, designed to accommodate musical bands performing concerts...
also dates from 1895, while two huge oak trees
Oak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
were planted in 1902 to mark the coronation
Coronation
A coronation is a ceremony marking the formal investiture of a monarch and/or their consort with regal power, usually involving the placement of a crown upon their head and the presentation of other items of regalia...
of King Edward VII
Edward VII of the United Kingdom
Edward VII was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions and Emperor of India from 22 January 1901 until his death in 1910...
. Just within the main gates, the war memorial
War memorial
A war memorial is a building, monument, statue or other edifice to celebrate a war or victory, or to commemorate those who died or were injured in war.-Historic usage:...
was erected in 1922.
Taunton Flower Show
Taunton Flower Show
Taunton Flower Show is an annual flower show held in Vivary Park, Taunton, Somerset, England. It has been described as "The Chelsea of the West", and attracts around 24,000 visitors over its two days....
has been held annually in the park since the 19th century. It has been described as "The Chelsea
Chelsea Flower Show
The RHS Chelsea Flower Show, formally known as the Great Spring Show, is a garden show held for five days in May by the Royal Horticultural Society in the grounds of the Royal Hospital Chelsea in Chelsea, London...
of the West", and attracts around 24,000 visitors over its two days.
In 1974, Frederick Jago, a man of 38, broke the world record
World record
A world record is usually the best global performance ever recorded and verified in a specific skill or sport. The book Guinness World Records collates and publishes notable records of all types, from first and best to worst human achievements, to extremes in the natural world and beyond...
for non-stop walking by covering a distance of 304.26 miles within the park. This took him 116 hours, 34 minutes, between 27 September and 2 October.
The current lake was created during the 1980s. Originally constructed as a stormwater
Stormwater
Stormwater is water that originates during precipitation events. It may also be used to apply to water that originates with snowmelt that enters the stormwater system...
measure, it is now home to several species of water birds, including mallard
Mallard
The Mallard , or Wild Duck , is a dabbling duck which breeds throughout the temperate and subtropical Americas, Europe, Asia, and North Africa, and has been introduced to New Zealand and Australia....
s, moorhen
Moorhen
Moorhens, sometimes called marsh hens, are medium-sized water birds that are members of the rail family Rallidae. They constitute the genus Gallinula....
s, ruddy
Ruddy Duck
The Ruddy Duck is a small stiff-tailed duck.Their breeding habitat is marshy lakes and ponds throughout much of North America, and in South America in the Andes. They nest in dense marsh vegetation near water. The female builds her nest out of grass, locating it in tall vegetation to hide it from...
and laysan duck
Laysan Duck
The Laysan Duck , also known as the Laysan Teal because of its small size, is an endangered dabbling duck endemic to the Hawaiian Islands...
s, Chinese geese
Chinese goose
The Chinese Goose is a breed of domesticated goose descended from the wild Swan Goose. Chinese geese differ from the wild birds in much larger size , and in having an often strongly developed basal knob on the upper side of the bill. The knob at the top of the beak is more prominent on males than...
, and kingfisher
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a group of small to medium sized brightly coloured birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species being found in the Old World and Australia...
s.