The image above is an extract from a 1920s O.S. 25inch map showing Pickering Park. By then the boating lake, with six islands, this more than in East Park, had been dug (s.p.b.). Christopher Pickering before the Great War had always wanted the digging of this lake to be done by unemployed workmen at the time, these under the authority of the Distress Committee of the Municipal Council. With the onset of War plans for such projects were put on hold and eventually it was agreed that the land earmarked for the lake should be cultivated as a contribution to national food production (given the circumstances this decision was a long time in coming, the Parks and Burials Committee being reluctant to commit their parkland to such use). Even so the soil proved very heavy for arable production, but by 1918 it was minuted that on this site five acres of potatoes had yielded 50-60 tons of potatoes. On more than one occasion children had been caught digging-up the crop, possibly following parental instructions.
The lake today is smaller than the one shown on the map the northern part of which must have been filled-in at some point.
The map extract shows the impact of Pickering’s determination that much of the site should be dedicated to sports pitches.
The area surrounding the Park shows that at that time land west and south of the Park was still post-Enclosure arable fields while to the east the Gipsyville estate was under construction (s.p.b.).
At the south end of the boating lake was a boathouse where the hire boats were stored while on its west side was a ‘bathing pool’ with two ‘diving platforms’. These must have been simple ground level spring boards as the pool would not have been very deep. Pre-War minutes show that on a few separate occasions children had drowned in the park lakes of Pearson Park and George V playing fields. There were particular circumstances in each case, one child in Pearson Park having had an epileptic fit while playing with a model boat.
(to be continued).