Now I have always liked this painting, and it perfectly conjures up a Sunday on a warm summer’s day in a Manchester park.
Writing in 1937, J P Priestly observed that, “The Corporation has made great efforts to provide young Manchester with healthy outdoor recreation, and there are now twenty-five parks and forty-eight recreation grounds in the city.
Nearly three quarters of the land in these parks is set aside for games including bowls tennis, cricket, golf, swimming, fishing, model yachting, football and hockey”.*
Of course, the cynical will observe that a few of the recreation grounds were little more than pockets of land, surrounded by factories while some of our parks were fighting a constant battle against pollution which blighted plants and left a smear of soot on the branches of trees.
But in the absence of open fields and clear crystal streams, this was it.
Location; Manchester
Picture; from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North
*Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937
Nearly three quarters of the land in these parks is set aside for games including bowls tennis, cricket, golf, swimming, fishing, model yachting, football and hockey”.*
Of course, the cynical will observe that a few of the recreation grounds were little more than pockets of land, surrounded by factories while some of our parks were fighting a constant battle against pollution which blighted plants and left a smear of soot on the branches of trees.
But in the absence of open fields and clear crystal streams, this was it.
Location; Manchester
Picture; from Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North
*Manchester ...... heart of the Industrial North, Manchester Chamber of Commerce, 1937
where in manchester
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