Bowling Park

Story

Bowling Park is a public urban park near Bolling Hall in Bradford, West Yorkshire, UK about 1.5 km south south east from the city centre. The park is irregularly shaped with an area of 20ha and is bounded by Bowling Hall Road, Burras Road, Bowling Memorial Cemetery, Parkside Road, Avenue Road, Bowling Park Allotments and Bowling Park Drive (formerly New Hey Road).The park is grade II listed with English Heritage on their Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in England and is owned by the City of Bradford.HistoryIn the late 1870s Bradford Council purchased large areas of land for the park, including part of the former grounds of Bolling Hall, Bradford. Earlier in the 19th century part of this land had been mined for coal and ironstone. In 1878 competitive plans were invited for the design of the park and later that year the plans by Kershaw and Hepworth of Brighouse were accepted.The park was created between the years 1878 and 1880 and subsequently opened in 1880 by Angus Holden. The design of the created park however, differed significantly from the Kershaw and Hepworth plans. The Kershaw and Hepworth plans show a croquet lawn, a cricket ground and a large reservoir bordering the park in the east but none of these were ever constructed. In the 20th century various ponds in the park were filled in so that none remain today, and an area in the south east of the park laid out for golf. Bowling greens, tennis courts and a second promenade were added in the 1920s.