The Grove/Hawkwood College Salmons Spring Mill & Brewery All Saints Church New Mills The Birches The Granges All Saints Centre Park Gardens Uplands House Old Police Station Little & Slad Mills Hawthorn Cottage
HB Park Gardens by kind permission of Howard Beard
What: Town centre public park
Where: GL5 1QW   Slad Road
Then: Part of The Birches estate
Now: Still very much in use.  The town's cenotaph stands in the park.

This hilly part of The Birches estate was mainly let for pasture before 1920. There was a very steep public footpath to Uplands at the far end – and there still is. Just beyond it was the turnpike house on the Slad Road. The ground was know for years as ‘Mr Winterbotham’s field’, as the solicitor’s family lived at The Birches.

Park Gardens were given to the town in 1920 by Sidney Park, a local draper and councillor, in memory of his only son, Herbert, who was killed in France during the First World War (1914-18), aged 23. It was later enlarged, taking in more of the top of The Birches grounds.

Park's Drapery stood on the corner of King St. and George St., where the HSBC bank is now, and the Park family lived in a flat over the shop.

Revised 2018 EMW

From January 2016, this website is managed by Stroud Local History Society