Summary
A municipal urban public park, planned in 1845 by Joshua Major and opened in 1846, altered in the C20 and refurbished in 2017.
The paved terrace outside the Maxwell Building, the access road from the south, the path and flood defence berm along the river, the former upper park and the land to the north of the university halls do not form part of the designed landscape and are therefore excluded from the registered area.
Reasons for Designation
Peel Park, a municipal urban public park of 1846 by Joshua Major, is registered at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
Historic interest:
* Peel Park is an unusually early example of a free municipal park in a major industrial town, maintained at public expense, and is an important site in the history of public parks;
* it has a strong association with Joseph Brotherton MP, who is commemorated by a statue in the park, and with LS Lowry who created numerous images of the park.
Design interest:
* its inception as a planned park for the people, freely accessible to all and with an emphasis on provision of areas for play and sport as well as promenading, was innovative for its date;
* as a significant design by Joshua Major, a landscape gardener of national note.
Survival:
* the surviving lower park’s landscaping and layout reflects the original design intentions with green swards defined by tree-lined paths (some original), formal areas for play and sport, and a set of formal beds and paths dating from around 1851.
Group value:
* it has strong group value with the statue of Joseph Brotherton, which was first erected in Peel Park in 1858, and also the listed buildings of Salford Museum and the Peel Building (where LS Lowry trained);
* Peel Park has a strong historical relationship with its registered sister parks in Manchester (Queen’s Park and Philips Park) that were also designed by Major and created as part of the same public fundraising campaign.
History
Peel Park, with Queen's Park and Philips Park in Manchester, was one of the first three public parks in the Manchester area, established at public expense as a single enterprise. All were designed by Joshua Major (1786-1866) following an open competition, and opened consecutively on 22 August 1846, beginning with Peel Park. Together with those Manchester parks, Peel Park is one of the first free municipal public parks in a major industrial city and is an important site in the history of public parks.
Joshua Major (1786 to 1866) founded a plant nursery around 1810 and became successful at flower shows. By 1824 he had designed the landscape for Hanover Square in Leeds and in 1833 and 1834 designed at Derwent Hall (Derbs) and Oakes Park, Sheffield (National Heritage List for England – NHLE – entry 1001160). Major was pragmatic in his approach to landscape design, but inevitably his designs became more picturesque. In 1852 he published The Theory and Practice of Landscape Gardening.
Manchester became a municipal borough in 1838, and Salford was granted borough status in 1844. A report of 1845 noted that ‘there are several walks around Manchester, which at present are much resorted to’, but that these were subject to illegal encroachments. The city was also described in the report as ‘entirely destitute of public places of recreation for her artisans’, suggesting that the existing walks were also exclusive. In 1844 the Manchester Guardian lamented that Manchester remained ‘almost the only town of importance in the kingdom entirely destitute of park, promenades, or playgrounds of any kind, for the free use of its population’. Nevertheless, as seen above, such facilities as existed elsewhere were not yet generally provided by local government, at public expense. A public meeting was held in Manchester in August 1844 (largely excluding the working classes by being on a Thursday during work hours) and appointed a committee led by Joseph Brotherton (MP for Salford), to raise funds, create suitable parks, and pass them on to corporation ownership. (Brotherton, and Manchester MP Mark Philips, had both testified to the Select Committee on Public Walks in favour of public places of recreation being maintained from the rates). A further meeting, for the working classes, was held at the Free Trade Hall in September and attracted over 5,000 attendees. Donations to the fund from over 4,000 contributors ranged from £1,000 given by the Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, to individual offerings as low as sixpence. Over £30,000 was raised by March 1845, to a cause which truly united the whole of Manchester and Salford. The government granted an additional £3,000.
The seven-acre Lark Hill estate was purchased in spring 1845 for £4500 (the £500 discount on its price of £5,000 being considered by its owner as his contribution to the fund). The adjacent 25-acre Wallness Meadows were bought in August for £5875, and the sites for the other two parks were also bought that summer. A competition was held for designs for all three parks. The design brief stipulated that ‘Each plot must have play-grounds, with due appropriation for archery grounds, quoit, skittle, and ball alleys; a refreshment room, one or more fountain, retiring places, and sufficient lodges. The utmost regard must be paid to giving ample room for the promenading of large numbers of persons; and the designers must keep before them the practical usefulness of the scheme, remembering that they are sketching a park for the public, to be constantly accessible, and not a private pleasure-ground. A carriage drive round the parks would be desirable, but no carriage drive to intersect them.’ The plans of around thirty total competition entries were displayed in Manchester Town Hall for six days in the autumn of 1845, with an admission fee to view them.
Major’s winning designs were swiftly implemented (low cost and the ease of realising the schemes having been among the judging criteria). Peel Park was opened first, followed by Queen’s Park (NHLE 1001523) and Philips Park (NHLE 1001531), with much public fanfare and a holiday atmosphere, with crowds of tens of thousands, an open carriage cortege of dignitaries, the closing of shops and factories (highly unusual on a Saturday morning), formal banquets, and the ringing of the bells of Manchester cathedral and other churches. Salford Corporation’s Public Parks Committee (comprising all but 6 of the 32 councillors) took over the running of Peel Park on 5 September.
A Rock and Co engraving of 1854 depicts the waterdrop-shaped path (to the south of the circular focal point mapped on the 1850 Ordnance Survey Town Plan), with a raised circular fountain within it. Although this was not mapped in 1850 it was probably also part of the original plan (the brief specified a fountain), but practical problems with water supply and drainage were not resolved until 1851. An early image shows a thatched circular shelter occupying the circular space to the north.
In 1850 Lark Hill, which had served as the refreshment room for the park since it opened, also became the first free local authority library in the country, and one of the first local authority museums (NHLE 1386179). Over 275,000 people visited in its first year (when the population of the borough was only around 64,000). Over the next 15 years, the different character of the two parts of the park was reinforced. The upper park’s more ‘improving’ character was strengthened by the extension of the museum and addition to its grounds of a number of statues, including Robert Peel (now at Gawsworth Old Hall), Joseph Brotherton (NHLE 1488343), Queen Victoria (NHLE 1386181) and Prince Albert (NHLE 1386180), and captured Russian cannons. In 1858 Earl Ducie presented gates which had been made in Rome and formerly stood at Strangeways Hall. These were erected beyond the west end of the south wall of the park (at the entrance to Marlborough Square), as an occasional entrance for the park, and formally opened in 1859. Also in 1859 a brick and stone gateway was built at the main (south-east) entrance, decorated in Indian style and named the Victoria Arch to commemorate the 1857 visit of the Queen (who was Lady of the Manor of Salford) – it was demolished in 1937.
The lower park remained a place of sport and amusement with its playgrounds renewed, and it was also gradually enhanced. In 1869 a cricket ground was laid out to the north of the original park boundary (largely built upon since and excluded from the registered area), on the four previously unused acres of Wallness Meadows that had been bought in 1845 (the southern boundary of the David Lewis recreation ground formed the northern boundary of the meadows purchased for the park’s creation). In 1872 a bowling green was added in the north-east quadrant of the original park.
Although flooding was a perennial problem (the head gardener died in 1852 trying to save a woman from the flooding river), a major flood of the Irwell inundated the lower park to a height of 2.6m in 1866. An obelisk commemorating the flooding was erected in the centre of the lower park in 1867, and also used to record a second flood of 1870 that rose to 1.3m. In 1875 the terrace to the north of museum was widened and extended westwards, and the slope down to the lower park steepened, with sets of steps (one directly aligned with the focal feature) and rockeries. As well as frequent flooding, air pollution prevented the survival of many of the trees which were continually planted in the park.
By 1889 the inclusion of the former grounds of Marlborough Square within the park (which appears to have been informally the case since the late 1850s, even though the houses remained occupied) had become complete. These grounds included a small oval lake which was ‘naturalised’, with a fountain added at its centre. The site of the original quoits ground on the western boundary had become a nursery with greenhouses (these had been further extended by 1908, on the site of the former boys’ swing). The original archery ground remained in use as a skittles alley, while the original skittle ground in the north-west corner of the park appears to have become a second outdoor gymnasium, with a smaller new area in similar use to its north. In the south-west quadrant of the lower park, a large circular area of hardstanding was laid out with a bandstand at its centre (possibly initially just a podium, with a roofed bandstand added in 1902). Tennis courts and pavilion were added in 1907, and a second bowling green with pavilion added in 1909.
In the 1890s the David Lewis trust gave the land to the north of the park to the corporation, and it became a recreation ground; initially with paths and a duckpond, but by the Second World War largely scrubland, and later used for sports pitches.
By 1933 the land to the west of the lower park, where the university campus now stands, was being built up, and by 1949 this had been brought to the edge of the park with a steep scarp whose foot ran along the original park boundary. This scarp has now been brought within the park.
The Salford-set 1917 novel Hobson’s Choice mentions Peel Park, and in 1954 the David Lean film adaptation was partly filmed in the park, which has also been depicted several times by LS Lowry, who studied at the adjacent technical institute (now the Peel Building).
In the later 1950s the upper park was planned to be cleared for the university. Instead only a site in the south-east corner was cleared, including the removal of some of the statues, while the path layout in front of the museum was simplified; but the upper park was effectively separated from the lower park, and it is not included in the registered area. In the 1960s a new footbridge across the Irwell connected with the park’s eastern boundary path, and the Maxwell Building of the university was erected. In the 1970s a car park was laid across the original north-west corner of the park, comprising the site of the original outdoor gymnasium and some of the former cricket ground (more recently of this has been occupied by halls of residence, and is also excluded). In the 1980s the bandstand was demolished and some of the paths allowed to disappear, while a path was added connecting the Irwell footbridge with the university campus via steps up the steep western scarp.
In 2008 the park was included in the Crescent Conservation Area. In 2017 National Lottery funding enabled restoration of the lower park, including the reinstatement of some former paths and refurbishment of the focal planting feature. The statue of Joseph Brotherton MP, which had been erected near the museum in 1858 and removed in 1954, was re-installed as a centrepiece (having in the interim stood at Gawsworth Old Hall, and on the Manchester and – briefly - Salford banks of the River Irwell). The park remains (2023) in public use and is in the ownership of Salford City Council.
Details
A public park opened in 1846 and designed by Joshua Major.
LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING
Peel Park is situated about 1.5km west of Salford’s historic centre on Greengate, on former meadow land west of the River Irwell. The eight-hectare site is bordered by Salford University on all but the eastern side, where it is bounded by the river. On the southern, western and northern sides there are steep slopes up to the university campus, but it is otherwise relatively flat. The park has few formal boundaries, comprising a section of low brick wall on the western boundary, and a low wall with railings along the southern boundary where a vertical drop and steep slope form a hazard for users of the university campus; none of these is historic.
The registered area reflects the main surviving part of the original design, which follows the current park boundaries. The upper (southernmost) section of the park, and the remaining area of the cricket ground added in 1869 at the northernmost end of the park, both now substantially reworked as part of the university campus, are excluded from the registered area.
ENTRANCES AND APPROACHES
The principal entrance to the park is in the centre of the southern boundary, to the north of the museum, and comprises a set of concrete steps. The lower flights are aligned with the main landscape feature and replaced the steps that were installed in the 1870s. These steps are now reached by an upper flight which is offset to the west, and accesses a paved terrace mid-way down the slope, around the Maxwell Building; these upper steps and the paved terrace fall outside the registered area. Other entrances are found: at the south-west corner, where a long ramped path runs across the face of the C20 western scarp; at the south-eastern corner, where a path to the east of the Maxwell Building diverges to run into the park and along the river bank; on the eastern side where the River Irwell Footbridge meets the park’s eastern path; at the north-east corner where a path from the David Lewis recreation ground meets a path carried across the Irwell by the Hough Lane Bridge; at the north-west corner where the University of Salford campus penetrates into the park – in particular where a zig-zag ramp and some steps give access to the lower level occupied by the park; and on the western side, where a broad flight of steps descends the western scarp and links with a path crossing the site, towards the River Irwell footbridge.
PARK
Peel Park is characterised by a network of paths for promenading, combined with areas of grass for recreation, areas for play and sport, and a core of formal planting and paths. Interspersed throughout are clumps of tree planting.
The formal core at the south end of the park comprises a central circular feature, (now a planting bed) surrounded by a further four smaller circular beds, all the beds being surrounded by paths, with further planting around the outer edges. At the south end, a tail path divides to form a waterdrop shape, with paving on the site of the former fountain. This path also connects to the main stepped access.
The path network comprises an outer circuit of the west, north and east sides of the main part of the park, axial paths creating four principal quadrants to the north of the formal core, and various smaller paths within the quadrants. The majority of paths are on similar lines to original paths although the hierarchy has altered; originally the outer circuit was suitable for carriages to drive, while the axial paths were for pedestrians only, and these axial paths are now the largest. Most of the paths are lined with trees. The transverse central path is also less sinuous than its original equivalent. In the centre of the quadrants two circular nodes have been created where paths meet. The northerly one is the location for the flood marker obelisk. The southerly node is now the location for the reinstalled statue of Joseph Brotherton, which originally stood in the upper park.
The north-west quadrant is heavily planted with trees and retains much of its original network of footpaths. To the west of the border circuit, the location of the original skittle ground partially remains as flat ground, and is partially occupied by the zig-zag entrance ramp. The north-east quadrant retains both of the former bowling greens (not in use) and although not expressed, the site of the original girls’ swing. The site of the former girls’ playground also remains, although the eastern boundary path now runs across part of its footprint. Immediately south of this is the modern bridgehead for the River Irwell footbridge, with concrete steps and ramps into the park. The south-eastern quadrant has a children’s playground, and is also the site of two sculptures installed in 2000: Fabric of Nature is a spiral mound with a seating area at its centre, by Julia Hilton; Monument To The Third Millennium is a conical web of steel, by Adrian Moakes. In the south-eastern corner the eastern boundary path now runs where the original archery ground stood. There is also a 2017 ramped access down from the terrace outside the Maxwell Building. This is clad in artificial stone and inscribed THIS PARK WAS BOUGHT BY THE PEOPLE/ FOR THE ENJOYMENT OF THE PEOPLE/ AND IS COMMITTED TO THE PEOPLE FOR PROTECTION (a quotation from a sign that previously stood at the entrance). The south-western quadrant is grassed.
Along the western boundary of the park is a steep, grassed and treed scarp sloping up to the university campus. At the south end this is traversed by a ramped path, which at its southern end overlies the original locations of the quoits ground and boys’ swing. Along the north side of the quadrants a dry ditch and bank form the northern edge of the park land where halls of residence (outside the registered area) occupy the former C20 car park. A grassed flood-defence berm and low-level tarmac path run along the river’s edge, but fall outside of the registered area.
