HOME HISTORY BUILDINGS PARKS COUNTRY PUBS COTTON FAIR MAPS LINKS MISCELLANY

GREAT HARWOOD

Open spaces / Memorial Park / Garden of Remembrance / Sports Field - Church Lane - Allsprings Drive - Brantfell Road / Bottom Rec. / Lowerfold Park
Churchfield / Top Rec. / Lyndon Avenue Playground / Norden Valley Recreation Area / Garden Street / Greenhill Playground / Bank Mill

Congregational Park - Lowerfold Park

Front cover of the Progamme of the Opening Ceremony of Congregational Park, June 27th, 1914

 

 

 

 

 

Lowerfold Park was laid out on land bought by three members of the Congregational Church, Messers. R. Hartley, J.H. Taylor and H.M. Thompson. The Official Opening Ceremony took place in June 1914. Originally for members only it was still known as the Congregational Park many years later.

 

List and times of events at the Opening Ceremony of the Congregational Park

 

Opening the bowling green.
Participants in the opening bowling match

Bowling green and pavilion, Congregational Park, Great Harwood

 

 

 

 

The bowling green was in front of the pavilion, inside were billiard and table tennis tables and a room for social events.

Snooker tables and piano inside the pavillion Congregational Park

Bowling green, Lowerfold Park, Great Harwood

 

 

The bowling green, crown of course,
remains but the pavilion has gone.

Ladies posing at the opening of the croquet lawn, Congregational Park, with tennis courts behind
The Misses Duthie and Misses Tomlinson (not necessarily in that order) open the croquet lawn.

The three tennis courts are behind the ladies (the present two are further north) and had newly planted flower beds beside them in 1914.
Flower beds alongside the tennis courts, Congregational Park

Membership card for Great Harwood Congregational Park, 30 June 1942

 

 

 

Membership was one shilling per year (5 pence) in the 1920s
although it had probably risen by the time this card was issued.

Children in fancy dress at Congregationa Park
Photo Mrs M Goodliffe

 

 

There were tennis and bowling clubs and organised events such as this "carnival" in 1926.

 

It was the centre of social life for Congregationalists for more than 30 years until bought by the Council.

Grassed area of filled in delph, Lowerfold Park, Great Harwood

Children's playground with swings etc, Lowerfold Park

 

 

 

In the foreground, in a small delph, was a children's
playground with swings, slides, see-saws etc.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The delph has been filled in, the area levelled and the
swings etc. have been moved to the centre of the park.

Thanks to Kevin Lambert for the postcards and membership card.

 

Map of parks

 

Open spaces / Memorial Park / Garden of Remembrance / Sports Field - Church Lane - Allsprings Drive - Brantfell Road / Bottom Rec. / Lowerfold Park
Churchfield / Top Rec. / Lyndon Avenue Playground / Norden Valley Recreation Area / Garden Street / Greenhill Playground / Bank Mill

 

HOME / HISTORY / BUILDINGS / PARKS / COUNTRY / PUBS / COTTON / FAIR / MAPS / LINKS / MISCELLANY

 

Sources

People and Places in Great Harwood, Louie Pollard. Page 17
A Great Harwood Miscellany, Louie Pollard. Page 47
1066. Great Harwood from William the Conqueror to the Millennium, Louie Pollard, Great Harwood Civic Society, 1999. Page 27

Last updated 17th April 2020 by ifinwig
Any rights I can claim are. Any rights belonging to others aren't