Brookvale Park
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Brookvale Park is located in the Stockland Green Ward of Erdington Constituency in England. The park surrounds Brookvale Park Lake. Within the park there is a bowling green, tennis courts, a children's play area and sailing club. Many local residents and groups take an active interest in the park and the lake.[1]
History
1086 – In the Domesday Book the park area was known as Hardintone, Peter de Hardintone and his family held this until 1467. Erdington fell within the boundary of the Royal Sutton Forest within the larger area of Estone (Aston) this was given to William Fitz Ansculf who in turn gave the area to Thomas de Erdington.
In the 12th century Erdington fell within the parish of Aston, which covered 23 square miles.
In 1126 Henry I of England exchanged the manor of Sutton and two forests in Rutland. Sutton then became a Chase (land) as only Royal forests could be called forests.
In 1826 a waterworks company formed to supply water to the inhabitants of Birmingham and on 20 July 1856 the waterworks company acquired the Brookvale site from Wyrley Birch for £3,600. The site was then known as Lower Witton Reservoir.
Birmingham Corporation brought the waterworks company in 1876.
In 1894 Erdington became an Urban District Council and nine years later the Urban District Council purchased Rookery House as council offices and the land of the site soon became Erdington's first park.
On 7 October 1909 Brookvale Park and officially opened and until 1926, Brookvale Park Lake was used as an open-air swimming pool operated by the Birmingham Baths Committee. The lakes and surrounding parkland are now maintained as a leisure amenity by Birmingham City Council.
Future
There will be a number of projects taking place over the summer of 2012 to improve the park and lake including:
- extending Swan island by 50%. This will be done by using gabions and low-grade aggregate fill the gabions.
- coppicing the willow in the conservation area past the bridge and using the willow to reinforce Swan island with local schools involved in making willow dens.
- submitting a heritage lottery grant to raise funds to rebuild the boat house located on the edge of Brookvale Lake that burnt down in the 1970s.
Birmingham City Council granted approval for a charity called Free@last to start an inner-city canoe club on Brookvale Park Lake, an agreement has been made with Brookvale Sailing Club to share their facilities which will see Watersports back to the lake by the summer 2011. The canoe club will also serve as a referral service for a variety of agencies.
References
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2011-08-16. Retrieved 2011-06-15.
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