Corporation Park is a traditional Victorian park in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. It was landscaped by William Henderson and opened in 1857. Corporation Park is regarded as the main formal park in Blackburn and is used mainly by local people for general recreation, walking and dog walking, as well as for its tennis, bowling and football facilities.
The park is registered by English Heritage as a Park and Garden of Special Historic Interest and is one of around 440 facilities of "exceptional historic interest" meriting a Grade II listing. The park has also been credited with the Civic Trust's prestigious Green Flag Award. Corporation Park also gives its name to a local government ward for Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council.
The 18 hectare (44.5 acre) park The grounds can be entered from the main southern entrance, two entrances aside the east and west porter's lodges or ten other gates on the perimeter of the park. Travelling through the large archway for carriages or two smaller side arches on foot, visitors are presented with the largest of these recently restored ornamental fountains to the right and a war memorial and formal garden of remembrance (laid out in 1922) on the left. The fountain was formerly powered by gravity, with a water jet rising into the air, although the modern jet is more modest.
and the park is for the community
History
Prehistory as a quarry and water supply
The park area contains large reserves of Millstone Grit and was previously a quarry called Park Delph. An ideal building material, the millstone grit was used for building the majority of the cotton mills and churches in Blackburn. The for the park were secured in January 1855 with the purchase by the then Mayor, Thomas Dugdale, for the Corporation, from Joseph Feilden for £3,237 6s 3d. at £65 per acre. Blackburn Corporation was also required to build public roads on the east and west sides of the estate (now East and West Park Roads) at an eventual cost of £4,480 17s 1d. The Blackburn Weekly Times praised the opening of the estate in an editorial following the celebrations:
The park would soon be host to another massive gathering. When eleven brass bands gathered on the upper terrace of the park in 1861 more than 50,000 people gathered to listen.
Cost
thumb|right|200px|This statue of the Roman goddess [[Flora (mythology)|Flora was donated by T. M. Fairhurst in 1871.The vandalised leg has now been repaired.]]
The full cost to the borough as reported in the Blackburn Weekly Times on 24 October 1857 are as follows. In 1905 the fountains, which had been in continuous operation since 1857, were turned off. The Northern Daily Telegraph reported a plan to fill the basin of the large fountain with flowers and the others with weeping plants. Although this never happened, the fountains were turned off owing in part to the nuisance caused by the reported drifting of the large fountain's water jet and the £30 annual cost of operating the fountains. Users of the park reported seeing a flash and houses around the park were shaken. A large piece of calico cloth was found next to the cannon in a brown paper parcel, on which was written in blue pencil:
thumb|right|200px|Wildlife in the park includes rabbits, ducks, swans and this [[Domestic goose|domestic greylag goose.]]
The firing of the cannon required the removal of several years of stones and gravel from the cannon. It was also supposed that the device was not cleaned before it was fired, resulting in the surrounding area being splashed with a yellow substance.
Other refurbishments include new benches, realignment of coping stones, resurfacing of pathways with tarmac and gravel for the broad walk and Italian gardens.