Wellington Park

Wellington park is a grade II listed formal Edwardian park covering 1.8 hectares. It was restored to an excellent condition in 2000 through Heritage Lottery Funding and as a result has held a Heritage Green Flag ever since.

The park’s original design features have been kept with the war memorial and toilet block being added at later dates. Throughout the summer the park has a lively programme of events organised by the Friends of Wellington Park which are popular with both local people and visitors.

Location

Wellington Park, Courtland Road, Wellington, TA21 8NF

Opening Times

Monday to Sunday, 7:30am to dusk.

Facilities

• Public Toilets (including disabled facilities)
• Seating
• Bandstand
• Nearby Children’s Play Area and Recreation Ground
• Dogs allowed (Must be kept on lead)

Rules

• Dogs must be kept on leads
• Pick up after dogs
• Use the litter and dog waste bins provided
• Young children must be supervised at all times
• No cycling
• Keep away from the ha-ha wall

Community Involvement

The Friends of Wellington Park organise a lively programme of events throughout the year and work with the Council to ensure that the park is maintained to a high standard.

As well as the friends’ events, the Town Council and other local organisations regularly book the space for events. If you would like to enquire about holding an event in the park please contact us.

Wellington Park is the heart of the town and we are pleased to work with local schools, adult care organisations, and the community payback scheme to facilitate activities that are fun and teach valuable skills. These include building bug hotels, deadheading and weeding in flowerbeds, painting, and litter picking.

History of Wellington Park

Early History

The layout of the ground prior to it being laid out as a park is shown on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map published in 1887. It comprised an open field lying between a large property called ‘The Court’ and what appears to have been a walled kitchen garden. ‘Beech Grove’, which formed the northeastern boundary of the field, provided a straight drive between these two features. With the exception of the Beech trees lining this drive, the field had no other distinguishing features.

Beech Grove is thought to be the original driveway to Wellington House, the mansion built for Lord Chief Justice Sir John Popham in the 16th century. The house was damaged by cannon fire during the Civil War and deemed not worth repair. It was subsequently destroyed.

Origins of the Park

On 6th February 1902, the Urban District Council received a letter asking what events had been planned to celebrate the forthcoming coronation of Edward VII. At a meeting of the council, a fortnight later, it was resolved to set up a Coronation Sub-committee.

At the beginning of March an anonymous letter published in the Wellington Weekly News, put forward the idea of creating a recreation ground for the town. Soon after, at a meeting of the Coronation Sub-committee, Mr W Sydney Price suggested that the creation of a recreation ground would be a suitable commemoration of the coronation. However, the proposal was dismissed by the committee on the grounds of cost.

But at the following meeting of the Coronation Sub-committee, on 20th March 1902, a letter from Wellingtons’ largest manufacturing company, Fox Bros. and Co. Ltd was read out, and they agreed to create and gift the park to the town of Wellington.

Photo of the formal document handing Wellington Park to Wellington Urban District Council.

The original document is kept in Tonedale House.

“We understand that a committee has been appointed to consider the question of obtaining a site for a Public Park, and we write to say that we shall be pleased as a firm, to present one to the Town. The idea has been in our minds for some time, but we felt that, in addition to the other matters, the question of the annual cost of maintenance, etc., required careful consideration. However, the appointment of your committee and the circumstances under which that appointment was made, justify us, we think, in the conclusion that the Town is prepared to undertake this annual charge. In our opinion, what is most wanted is a place in a convenient and pleasant situation, planted and laid out in lawns and flower beds and well supplied with seats. Our wish then, is, (if the council accepts it) to present 4 acres of ground adjoining and including the row of Beech Trees near the entrance to ‘Court’ which we will enclose, plant and lay out, and in which we will erect any necessary buildings including a Caretakers cottage. We must, however, make it a condition that it should be under constant supervision of a resident caretaker and shall not be used as a playground either by adults or children.”

Further conditions included that there were to be no new entrances made, no new buildings could be erected without the consent of Fox Bros. and if the town no longer wished it to continue as a park, then it would revert to the donors.

The offer of the land was gratefully accepted by the council two days later. Fox Bros. subsequently commissioned the firm of Robert Veitch and Sons of Exeter to design and build the new park. The construction work started in July of the same year and was completed in time for the official opening ceremony on 2nd May 1903, when the key to the park was handed over to the Chairman of the Council by Joseph H Fox. The land was officially conveyed to the council on 25 June 1903.

Design of the Park

Robert Veitch and Sons employed their own landscape gardener, F.W. Meyer, to design the layout. A central feature of the design was a rock garden associated with the stream feeding the pond. The construction of this feature was described at length in an article published in ‘The Garden’ on 18 April 1903, which stated that:

“Since the ground is, on the whole, rather flat, a small valley was produced by means of excavation for the double purpose of greater undulation and gaining soil needed for filling up in other portions of the park. Into the lowest part of this valley a fair-sized pond was introduced, and the rock garden was constructed chiefly against the steep banks forming the head of the pond and spread out also to some of the projecting portions of the shoreline a little further away . . .The first appearance of the water is in the form of a spring, which is partly hidden by rocks, and, falling over a dark cave, forms a waterfall which feeds the pond.“

The article was accompanied by two photographs (see one to the right) of the newly constructed rock-work taken before and after planting. It incorporated about 80 tons of limestone, which may have been imported from the nearby Westleigh Quarry at Burlescombe, and its construction and planting-up apparently took no more than a fortnight to complete. The article also gives considerable detail of the nature of the planting between the stones which included various forms of Rhododendron, Juniper, Yew and Spruce as well as Osmanthus, Cystus and Berberis. There were also areas carpeted with prostrate Veronicas and Primulas amongst other things.

The three access points into the park, in the north, south and eastern corners are marked by formal gated entrances constructed from rendered brickwork, with a clay pan-tiled roof canopy overhead. The caretakers lodge in the northern corner of the park, incorporates similar materials and architectural detailing, as does a small canopied drinking fountain built close to the lodge at the northern end of the Beech Walk. The buildings in the Park were all constructed by the local building firm of Follett Bros, although the identity of the architect is not known. 

The design has taken account of features in the surrounding landscape, and this has been reflected in the layout, particularly the treatment of the boundaries. The main entrance has been sited on the corner of Courtland Road and Beech Grove taking advantage of the main access routes available to the park. The main entrance gates are set back from the road creating a forecourt which was presumable intended to provide a circulation space for carriages to drop off visitors to the park. Although the arrangement of the main entrance was slightly altered, the original concept of a small forecourt was adhered to.

Development of the Park

In addition to giving the land to the Council, Fox Bros. also gave a donation of £100 per annum for the first 5 years of the parks’ existence. This money was put towards the cost of maintenance in the park, not only for the planting and lawns but there are also references in the council minute books to the re- varnishing of all of the seats in the park and the re-painting of the Bandstand and the Shelter in 1906.  The final instalment was due to be made in 1908, but the company made a further donation of £50 in the following year devoted to providing music in the park.

A number of postcards have survived, illustrating the character of the park soon after it was laid out. The existence of the large beech trees, which can be seen in the first postcard below, along with other mature trees around the outside of the site, gave an air of maturity to the park despite its relative newness. However, it is apparent from the minute books, that the beech trees were already over-mature in the parks’ early years, and were beginning to decline. There are several entries in the minutes relating to felling of beech trees, and in 1908 it was suggested that some of the recently felled trees should be replaced by London Planes. Not long after that the remaining beeches were felled and the whole line was replanted with Planes.

In 1921 the Fox family gave a further 5½ acres of land lying immediately to the west of the Park to the Council. At the hand-over ceremony,  Mr F Hugh Fox, the chairman of the Firms Directors, said that this ground was a thank you offering for peace and he explained that the ground would belong to the children of Wellington for their recreation for as long as they wanted it. On 17th June in the same year, Mr Fox unveiled a new war memorial in the Park, constructed from two rough hewn blocks of Cornish Granite from Penryn, and bearing the names of the town’s war dead.

The toilets were added to the park some time before the Second World War.

Surviving Features of the Historic Layout

Despite some alteration to the elements of the design, the layout of the park shown on the conveyance plan of 25 June 1903 has survived almost intact to the present day.

Future of Wellington Park

Wellington Park was faithfully restored in 2000 by Somerset County Council through Heritage Lottery Funding. Since then, the park has retained a Heritage Green Flag accreditation. This is something that Somerset and Wellington Town Councils have been very proud of and we look forward to continuing to maintain this honour.

The ownership of Wellington Park transferred to Wellington Town Council on 1st April 2025, over 50 years after it first left the hands of a Wellington authority. The future of the park is bright as this local management will hopefully allow us to maintain the park to a high standard and continue to provide this area as a welcoming area for residents and visitors of Wellington.