Kettering, Northamptonshire - Wicksteed Park, gardens - Photochrom postcard

Postcard
• Picture / Image:  Wicksteed Park, The Gardens in Kettering, Northamptonshire
• Publisher:  Photochrom Ltd.
• Postally used:  no
• Stamp: n/a
• Postmark(s): n/a
• Sent to:  n/a
• Notes / condition:  bumped corner

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Text from the free encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA may appear below to give a little background information (internal links may not  work) :

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Wicksteed Park is an amusement park in Kettering, Northamptonshire, England. The park opened in 1921. It is believed to be the oldest amusement park in England;^[1] however, the Blackgang Chine theme park on the Isle of Wight is considerably older. It is located 2 miles (3.2 km) from the A14 and is signposted from the M1 & A1 and located near the Midland main line between London and Sheffield.

The Park was founded by Charles Wicksteed. He was the son of a Unitarian minister of the same name and his wife Jane, born into the prosperous and long-established Lupton family of Leeds. The young minister arrived in 1835 to lead Mill Hill Chapel, at the heart of that industrial city, and two years later the couple married. In 1841 his sister Elizabeth married Jane's brother Arthur (1819-1867), also a Unitarian minister; Uncle Arthur was, according to a family history, ""The Achilles of the Leeds Complete Suffrage Association""^[2]- in other words, atragic champion of the fight for universal suffrage; see Chartism and Henry Vincent for more on the CSA. Charles Junior had the maverick MP and mining engineer Arnold Lupton as his first cousin. Charles Junior was one of nine children, including Janet, who wrote, as Mrs Lewis, a memoir including her parents; Philip (Henry), the economist and Unitarian theologian; and (Joseph) Hartley, president of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers.^[3] Through his mother, he was connected to poiticians, philanthropists, factory owners, and businessmen. One of his nieces was Mary Cicely Wicksteed, who married the prominent Australian surgeon Sir Hibbert Alan Stephen Newton (1887-1949)^[4]

In 1913 Wicksteed purchased a tract of Northamptonshire meadowland near Kettering with the intention of developing a model village. He wanted to create an open space and safe parkland for local families. He also owned an engineering company (Wicksteed Park Leisure) and started to supply park seats and playground equipment to public parks far and wide. This company today still provides this equipment and can be found in many such parks across Europe with some of the products in Wicksteed Park.

The Park's fame spread far and wide and special trains and charabancs brought visitors from an ever-widening area. Wicksteed Park was the first Leisure Park in the UK and has been copied many times since. Upon the death of Charles Wicksteed, the Board of Trustees were determined to continue his good work.

Open all year round, the children's playground is the largest free playground in Europe.^[5]

Of historical interest is the Water Chute, which was built in 1926 and, having undergone major renovation (in 2002), it is the oldest working ride in the UK.^[6] It has a narrow gauge railway which runs around the lake.^[7]

The park is owned by the Wicksteed Trust, a registered charity set up by Charles Wicksteed in 1916 and run by Wicksteed Park Ltd, a company wholly owned by the Trust.

type=printed postcards

theme=topographical: british

sub-theme=england

county/ country=northamptonshire

number of items=single

period=1945 - present

postage condition=unposted