Ruth Colton, Melanie Giles, Hannah Cobb and Siân Jones Historic parks have always been sites of education for children: learning the names of plants and trees, games to play, how to behave well in the company of others. These were key motives for Victorian and Edwardian philanthropists, keen to improve the social, moral and physical wellbeing of urban communities. Arguably, many of these values are still important today, building on the educational principle that children learn best by doing, and
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‘Parklife’ past and present: The Whitworth Park Community Archaeology and History Project
by Siân Jones, Hannah Cobb, Ruth Colton and Melanie Giles (University of Manchester) Whitworth Park was opened in 1890 towards the tail end of the most prolific park building period the country has ever known. It cost £69,000, and was filled with features designed for the recreation and health of the surrounding neighbourhood. The park became extremely popular on its opening, “abundantly visited” by the local population,[1] with some “six to eight thousand” people present on a Sunday afternoon in
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