Hartshill Park facts for kids
Hartshill Park is a large nature reserve located on the western side of Stoke-on-Trent, England. This park is like a patchwork quilt, made up of different natural areas, including five ponds. It's really special because it used to be a deer hunting park way back in Norman times and has stayed an open, green space until today. It's officially known as a local nature reserve.
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The Park's Story
The name "Hartshill" comes from the word "Hart," which means "deer." This tells us that deer were once common here!
Ancient Roads and Hunting Grounds
Long ago, a Roman road called Rykeneld Street might have passed right along the top of the ridge where the park is now. However, experts think the road probably went through a different valley, making its way to Stoke via Etruria.
Hartshill Park was part of a big deer hunting park during the Norman period. This park was used for hunting well into the 1400s! Records from that time even show that its boundaries were being fixed.
Changes Over Time
Over the centuries, parts of the park changed. By the 1400s, the flatter areas in the valley were likely cleared of trees. The higher parts of the hunting park became a large estate with a farm. On old maps from around 1860, this area was called "Cliff Ville." It was a fancy home with big gardens, which later became Saint Dominic's High School.
In the early 1900s, some easy-to-reach parts of the park were used for dumping waste from pottery and brick-making factories. Most of the land in the park was used for farming, especially for grazing animals and dairy, from 1916 to 1978.
The Stoke-on-Trent City Council bought the land in 1975. Some parts of the park were used for two new schools and their playing fields in the 1960s and 1970s. One of these schools has since closed and is now a housing area. The rest of the land was cleaned up starting in the late 1970s to become a public park. However, it didn't get much care from the city council for about thirty years after that.
The Convent and Its Pools
The very southern tip of Hartshill Park became the land for a Catholic convent and a school in the early 1920s. The nuns who lived there used the pools for drawing nature scenes. They also built a large grotto (a cave-like structure) to hold a statue of Our Lady. This grotto is still there today! The convent building is now a home for older people.
The pools at the very southern end of the park are called the "Convent Pools." As of 2012, these pools were being fixed up and restocked with new fish and plants, thanks to different grants.
Friends of Hartshill Park
In 1999, a group called the "Friends of Hartshill Park" was started. This group works hard to make the park better. They have received small grants to fix paths, create new natural areas for plants and animals, and plant many new trees. Their efforts help keep the park a beautiful place for everyone to enjoy.
