The next time you go past Belle Vue Park on Cardiff Road, Newport, look at the stone walls and buildings, and spare a thought for the desperate residents of nineteenth-century Newport, who, 125 years ago, broke those stones by hand, writes Gwent historian Dr Wendy Taylor.
They weren’t convicts; they were just unemployed and very poor.
As we all know, the park wasn’t always there.
Lord Tredegar gave the Newport Corporation 23 acres of land in the Belle Vue area, which was to be used for a public park and for other purposes, such as road expansion.
So in 1892 the Newport Corporation announced a competition asking for designs for the space; twenty-five entries were received.
Mr Mawson, a landscape gardener, won the first prize of £50 with a design called ‘A Sea Breeze’, with a construction cost of £10,761.
Mr Lawrence and Mr Fox, architects of Newport, won the £20 second prize for a design called “East or West, Home is Best” with, it was reported, a construction cost of £9,780.
Surprisingly both designs were similar and possessed outlines for beautiful walks; shrubbery and trees; a pavilion with terraces; ornamental lodges, and stone steps.
Mawson’s design won over, because it included tennis courts and other leisure spaces. By the end of 1892 work was well under way.
In early 1893, a park committee meeting took place and discussions surrounding the height of the park’s railings was on the agenda, and Mr Baker, the contractor, was told that they needed to be stronger and a foot higher.
With the railings sorted, the meeting moved onto what had been done for the unemployed.
In fact a great deal had been done to elevate the unemployment in the town. It was reported that from January 4, 1893 to February 13, 1893, £691 15s had been spent on the unemployed with £85 8s 9d of that spent on stone breaking.
It was also revealed that the money had given wages to more than 1,000 persons who would have otherwise been unemployed.
The surveyor was complemented on the quality of the work and the arrangements that he had made to elevate some of the problems for the people out of work.
With loads of work taking place on levelling the site and on widening Cardiff Road and Stow Park Road, specifics about the park were slowly being announced.
In March 1893 it was reported that a request had been made to erect greenhouses in order to teach fruit cultivation; eventually one acre of land was given over to the project. In July 1893 it was revealed that the pavilion and terraces were to be build for the sum of £2,048 by the contractor, Mr Dyson Parfitt.
Other tenders went out for the construction of the agreed greenhouses, fountain and ornamental work.
Shrubbery and planting, which was to be done by Mr Philip Shaw of Abergavenny, was estimated to have cost £897 13s 1d.
It was declared that the total cost for the park did not exceed £20,000; the cost being nearly double the initial estimate due to additions to the initial plan and work found for the unemployed.
The park officially opened on September 8, 1894. The newspapers pointed out that due to the design of the site, it was not a park for athletic games but more like a beautiful garden to captivate the senses and to enjoy a peaceful walk, while taking in the scenes.
Locking gates, made of wrought iron, provided the entrance to the park, which was accompanied by two lodges designed by Mr Mawson, and produced by Brown and Co. of Birmingham. Numerous paths were made to take people through the shrubbery and lead them onto the park’s main attraction, the pavilion and terraces. A newspaper reporter was proud to announce that no other park had such an attraction, although a park in Hanley, England, was having a similar design constructed.
The design of the pavilion and terraces had been planned with the purpose of accommodating different functions.
The nineteenth-century pastime of listening to live-out-door music, especially band music, had to be accommodated.
The terrace was designed to accommodate about 3,000 people; the park had been given moveable-terrace seating by Alderman H.J. Davies, the park committee and other donors.
More seating was available on the terrace wall, which had been planned at sitting height.
A bandstand was built of pitch pine with a copper top, and designed to provide better acoustics.
The inside of the pavilion was intended as a place to shelter from the rain. Messrs Richardson and Co. of Darlington built the two conservatories, which were erected on either side of the pavilion, and Messrs Baker and Co. of Newport constructed the heating system. Further works included a stream and extensive rockwork. Messrs Pulham and Sons of Brockburn, who executed this work, had, the newspapers claimed, built a cave and boathouse at Sandringham for HRH The Prince of Wales.
So the next time you go pass Bell Vue Park give a thought to the nineteenth-century Newport residents, like Mr McDouglas, who in January 1893 was taken to the Newport and County Infirmary with a serious lower-leg injury, which happened while working on the site so that today we can have a pleasant walk or a cup of coffee in the pavilion.
There is a wealth of unknown stories behind every worker who helped construct the park. We can only imagine the impact that such a large construction project had on the town, but it is safe to say that the unemployed must have felt enormous relief knowing that they lived in a town where work was created for them, so that they wouldn’t starve
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