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The sustainable drainage system, or ponds project as it became known, was the last development funded in the 2017 improvements package. Unlike other work which improved […]
By 2015, the bowling pavilion was almost 25 years old and in need of refurbishment. Its facilities did not meet modern standards while, outside, its walls […]
The Meadow Café opened on 26th July 2019. It was built next to the clock tower roundabout on the site of the changing rooms and public […]
When the park opened in 1931, there were six hard and two grass tennis courts where the Life Centre Field is today. The courts were removed […]
The playing fields on the western side of Discovery Way had long suffered from poor drainage and were frequently unplayable in wet weather. There was also […]
In the recession that followed the banking crash in 2008, people were attracted to growing their own food and, by 2011, more than a thousand were […]
Building the Life Centre generated huge quantities of earth and rubble, not only from its deep foundations but also from the demolition of the old swimming […]
Ruth Heaton (left), Jean Waterfield (middle) and Joan Hassall (right) were among those who as schoolchildren took part in planting trees on Coronation Avenue in 1937. […]
Whatever their merits as sporting facilities, the swimming pool and Mayflower centre had little connection with the park. The large buildings were poorly situated and intruded […]
There had been an extensive, privately-run skate park in Zoo Field which was demolished in 1981. In July 2004 a new, public skate park was built […]
The twin demands of paying the rent for its Peverell Park ground and making the improvements needed meant that Plymouth Cricket Club’s finances were often a […]
Work to design and install a permanent orienteering course was completed between 2003 and 2004. Much of the surveying and mapping was done by volunteers with […]
In 2003 the conservation charity, International Tree Foundation, was looking to extend its Family Tree Scheme to more places. At the same time, Plymouth City Council […]
Play facilities in Central Park took a major step forward in 2003 when the Seven Continents adventure playground opened on a new site, south west of […]
The avenue of red horse chestnuts planted by school children for the coronation of King George VI was made the subject of a Tree Preservation Order […]
In 2001, Plymouth Argyle applied to redevelop the Home Park stadium in phases. Phase 1 was to replace the Lyndhurst (north), Devonport (west) and Barn Park […]
The zoo’s popularity waned during the 1970s and started to incur financial losses. In 1977, the owners, Chipperfields, proposed to keep the quarantine facility and the […]
The present clock is the second to occupy the site. More information is sought about the previous clock tower which is believed to have been installed […]
As the new manager of Plymouth Argyle in 1972, Tony Waiters wanted the football club to have its own training facilities close to Home Park, the […]
Memories of rides on the 10¼ inch gauge miniature railway during the summers of 1946, 1947 and 1948 might have been the inspiration for something more […]
After the swimming pool opened in 1965, Plymouth City Council and sporting interests wanted to establish a sports hall and other facilities in Central Park but […]
When the park was made, the junction between Alma Road and Outland Road was a simple crossroads, and the park’s main entrance path led from the […]
It was third time lucky when the Devon Branch of the charity, Men of the Trees, organised a mass tree planting with 200 children from 15 […]
Roads in America were often built with a green verge or ‘park strip’ and stopping there was called ‘parking’. The term took on a quite literal […]
Of all the major developments that took place between 1960 and 1975, only the golf course has survived. Not only that but it has matured as […]
Before and after the second world war, the city had no indoor swimming pool for public use. The outdoor pools at Mount Wise and Tinside were […]
Following completion of the new Civic Centre in March 1962, the Town Clerk and his staff moved there, having been at Pounds House since 1941. Eighteen […]
Making a zoo on a 6-acre green-field site in just 6 months from the submission of plans to first opening was a remarkable achievement. Mr James […]
The 1931 plan for the park does not show a depot to support all the usual maintenance functions although Mawson’s earlier report confirms that one was […]
On Saturday, 2nd June 1951, the summer of the Festival of Britain, the Western Evening Herald reported a curious event in its regular column, “A Citizen’s […]
For the first twenty years of the park’s existence, its sports facilities were rudimentary with matches being played on heavy, uneven pitches and teams having nowhere […]
The semi-circular car park on Outland Road was part of the original Mawson design and constructed with the park between 1929 and 1931. A row of […]
The Milehouse Corner playground was a long way from residential areas around the northern, eastern and southern boundaries of the park and three more playgrounds were […]
When the park opened in 1931, its only shelter was next to the paddling pools and playground near the main entrance at Milehouse. It was a […]
The Western Evening Herald reported on 25th September 1947 that the Alma Road widening scheme had begun. The condition of this highway had been causing considerable criticism […]
Over 156,000 temporary bungalows or “prefabs” (abbreviated from prefabricated buildings) were manufactured and erected across the UK between 1945 and 1948 to help with meeting the […]
In August 1946, a year after the end of the Second World War, a model enthusiast, George Archibald Dingle who lived at Kelly Bray near Callington, […]
In the photo below of a 1949 cycle race, the curved roof of a Nissen hut can be seen behind the crowds and to the left […]
After the Second World War, there was a pressing need for new maps. Ordnance Survey (OS) surveyors used triangulation points in the country and revision points […]
A 2003 English Heritage study records a Prisoner of War camp at Home Park, number 673, although the grid reference is almost certainly incorrect and the […]
In 1943, the US Navy established a forward operating base in Plymouth to support the ships that would take troops across the English Channel to fight […]
By 1942, the central cooking depots established at Torr House, Crownhill and Laira Schools had become very unsatisfactory, and an increasing number of meals were needed […]
There were at least four public air raid shelters built in the park to protect local residents from the Blitz. They were cut into the ground […]
The Town Clerk in 1940, Colin Campbell, had the added responsibility of being the Air Raid Precautions (ARP) controller. When bombed out of the municipal offices […]
A hutted camp was established on the eastern side of Alma Road just to the north of Upper Knollys Terrace. The layout and shapes in this […]
Plymouth had many defences against enemy bombing and the threat of invasion. In Central Park, an anti-aircraft battery was situated where the sports plateau is today […]
The first cricket pavilion was a small wooden one costing £365. It was officially opened by the Deputy Lord Mayor, Walter Littlejohn, during the match against […]
Coronation Avenue takes its name from the trees planted along it in 1937 to celebrate the coronation of King George VI. Children from schools across Plymouth […]
There are many ways into Central Park but only six places where the entrances have been formalised with gate pillars. Five are still accessible and are […]
