Bramcote - Bramcote
Hills Park - Part 01
w/e 18 May 2008
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
Before setting out to take these photos, I looked
up Bramcote Hills Park on the Broxtowe Borough Council website
where it says that the park can be broken down into a series
of areas. I noted that there were six of these areas and thought
"Six areas, six photos" but on closer inspection I
found that some of them were sub-divided into smaller sections.
And being somewhat snap happy, I've decided to split the photos
into two lots and spread them over two parts.
The first area conveniently situated close to the car park is
the children's play area which has benefited from a £65,000
investment by the Council enabling it to be refurbished and extended
in 2007. It was officially re-opened by the Mayor of Broxtowe
on 10 July 2007 and is now enjoyed by children from both Bramcote
and adjacent Stapleford as well as visitors from all the surrounding
area.
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The park spreads over some 21 hectares but most of the points
of interest are situated close to the car park in the south west
corner. That includes the footings of former single storey Dairy
Cottage, one of the original park buildings that had stood on
the site for well over 150 years. It was shown on the Tithe map
of 1846 but fell into a state of disrepair and was demolished
in 2001. Now, as we can see, it provides a pleasant spot for
visitors to sit and pass the time of day.
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The path that passes the Dairy Cottage leads to the Walled Garden
which was first created about 1850 and took thirty years to reach
completion. The walls surrounded a working fruit and vegetable
garden and more recently the area within was used as the Council's
parks maintenance depot and nursery.
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Included within the walls now is an interactive Sundial Maze
and an information board shows three ways that the feature may
be used. They are a) Get to the centre without crossing the red
circles or the stone slabs, b) Visit the numbers 1 to 12 in order
that are marked in the maze again without crossing the red circles
or the stone slabs and c) Stand in the centre and let your shadow
indicate the time on the sundial. On this sunny afternoon having
stood in the centre, I can confirm that the sundial is accurate
to Greenwich Mean Time although my watch on British Summer Time
was showing an hour different.
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Beyond the wall and across Coventry Lane, Stapleford Hill rises where a large weathered
sandstone rock (seen here as a dark patch where the grass meets
the trees) is associated with many myths and legends. This is
the Hemlock Stone. Within the Walled Garden though is the Holocaust
Memorial Garden. The garden was officially opened on January
27th 2001 having been created towards the end of the previous
year. An annual memorial service remembering the victims of the
Holocaust is now held in the garden towards the end of January.
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A sculpture called "The Refugee" created by a survivor
of Auschwitz, Naomi Blake, is the centre point of the Memorial
Garden. Several information panels surround the sculpture including
one that reads "This garden is dedicated to millions of
victims of oppression, torture, mass death and genocide. We mourn
their loss as our loss and that of all humanity." And another
says "We remind ourselves that the duty to uphold the values
of humanity are shared equally by everyone. Looking back, we
look forward to make a world free of intolerance and pain."
Surely sentiments we can all subscribe to.
Forward to Part 02
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