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Tilgate Park

United Kingdom / England / Crawley /
Now the largest and most popular park in Crawley, Tilgate Park originally formed part of the Tilgate Estate, which encompassed a much larger area including part of Three Bridges, Furnace Green, and the surrounding forested areas. Originally part of the Worth Forest, the earliest records of the site date from the Norman Conquest. From the mid 19th Century the estate was owned by the Ashburner Nix family. The three lakes within the park were probably constructed to serve the medieval iron industry. The main lake was used by Malcolm Campbell in the 1940's for flotation trials for his speedboat 'Bluebird' Tilgate Park was purchased by the council in the early 1960's. What remained of the estate was opened as Tilgate Park, with the original stable block renovated into residential properties, now known as Tilgate Mansions. Sadly the mansion had fallen into disrepair over the years and was demolished in 1965 and replaced by what is now known as "The Bluebird" pub (now closed). The Walled Garden was originally the kitchen garden for the Tilgate Estate, then later used as a horticultural research station. The local council purchased Tilgate Park in the 1960's, and the Walled Garden was retained as a tree nursery to supply the park, and new neighbourhoods being developed in the town. Photo Credit - Pete Chapman - www.geograph.org.uk/browse.php?p=120767nText - Crawley Council Website - www.crawley.gov.uk/stellent/idcplg?IdcService=SS_GET_PA...
Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilgate_Park
Nearby cities:
Coordinates:   51°5'34"N   -0°10'59"E

Comments

  • Oboy
    Nice piece about one of my local parks. The park features the "Nature Centre" - a small zoo with a variety of species. One of the stars of the Nature Centre is Terry, the talking (swearing!) Raven ( See him on this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZyBNWVD70w). His catch phrase is "Come on Terry". Wikipedia entry for Tilgate Park: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tilgate_Park. NB. There are no places of worship in the park, so "type: Church, temple, mosque" is not very appropriate!
  • Oboy
    I'm new here! Just found out how to add my amendments (as above). Type now Park. Wikipedia link added.
This article was last modified 13 years ago