Grange Gardens - the first 120 years
An Edwardian photo of Grange Gardens
with the original bandstand.
Grange Gardens was a gift to Cardiff in
1894 by Lords Bute and Windsor, who owned the land on which it stands. Just
over 9,000 square yards belonged to Bute and 5,764 square yards came from
the Windsor estate. Cardiff's parks committee had three years earlier approached
the two landowners, as they recognised the by now well developed suburb had
no proper recreational area.
The laying out of the park cost £2,374 and a bandstand was constructed
in February 1895 - the first in Cardiff at the time - for the additional
cost of £100. However, it was complicated by the fact the wrong foundations
were laid for the bandstand. "Grangetown Gardens" - designed by
William Pettigrew, the Scottish head gardener to Cardiff Corporation and
municipal engineer William Harpur - opened on June 19th 1895 by councillor
Joseph Ramsdale, the chairman of the parks committee. "A very large
number of the inhabitants of Grangetown" gathered for the ceremony
and the mayor proposed a toast to Lord Bute and Lord Windsor. Mr D A Burn's
Roath brass band entertained with a selection of tunes. There was also a
celebratory dinner later.
The war memorial was added in 1921 at a cost of £1,000, paid for
by subscriptions and the organising committee are named at the base of the
stone. There are more than 330 names on the panels, researched as part of
the Grangetown World War One
project, which also uncovered another 130 additional names. Interestingly,
a plaque was added in 2000 in memory of Private W Langstone, whose body
was only found nine years after the end of the war and who was missing from
the memorial. Surviving members of his family attended the ceremony, along
with representatives of many service organisations. A further plaque to
later Grangetown war dead has been added.
Colin Gundersen writes: "The bandstand was removed during
the war when the park also lost its ornate railings. During the war, events
arranged around the 'Holiday at Home' campain running at that period, made
large use of the park to include open-air dancing around the base of the
old bandstand, the base itself being used for announcements by the "master
of ceremonies" if that is not too grand a title, together with moral-boosting
speeches by local councillors concerning such matters as the amount collected
for the Spitfire Fund.
"Cecil Guy, Gwyneth Lewis and their team used to give demonstrations
in Grange Gardens. After moving home from Clive Street, the Guy family settled
in St Fagans Street opposite Grange Council School. The fountain sited midway
along the eastern path to Corporation Road, remained until long after the
war alongside which at that time was a large resevoir excavated and lined
with shuttered concrete for emergency fire fighting use. It was bounded
by wood-lath wired fencing which was to be seen all over the city, and in
fact all over the UK in those days. It was cheap and quick to erect."
The bowling green dates from June 1906 and was opened by Councillor
Dixon who spoke of his pleasure to see the ancient game alienate young men
from public houses. The green was "admirable for its smoothness."
A timber shelter was built in 1913, a ladies shelter and urinals added before
being dismantled. The bowling club building on the right housed the air
raid warden during World War II. A more modern pavilion was built in 1964
but sadly the club folded in 2013 due to lack of members. There are plans
to being the building back into comminity use.
There is a children's playground on the left (the first swings were
not erected until 1961), while the trees are more mature. The gardens celebrated
its centenary with new trees, fences, a relaid path and improved children's
equipment. The bandstand is a replica of the original, which cost
£100 and was the first to be built in a Cardiff park. It had been
dismantled in the late 1950s - already in a poor condition by the late 1930s.
The new one cost £324,000 and it was finally opened with a ceremony - and
plenty of music - in 2000. A replacement to the drinking fountain,
- erected in 1909 and taken away during the war, also returned to the park
at the same time.
The gardens joined Cadw's register of parks of historic interest in Wales
in September 2013. It was included because it represents a "well-preserved
Victorian urban public park that retains much of its original layout"
and became the first of Cardiff’s parks to include a bandstand and public
tennis courts. Although not the same level of protection as a listed building,
it does give the park some status in terms of any future planning application.
Just outside the park on Corporation Road is a wooden shelter, near the
bus stop, which could date from Victorian times and is a listed structure
and was refurbished in 2014.
A short animated film made in 2004 by Jane Hubbard, with the history
society and Grangetown Primary School, looks at the history of Grange Gardens.
The memorial was unveiled in July 1921 - listing 330 men who died.
This shows the cast iron fountain being presented in 1909 by Mr I Samuel.
in memory of his parents and brother, Louis Samuel MP in 1909. A recast
replica was installed in 2000. Right is the opening of the Grangetown bowling green in June 1906.
Grange Gardens and bowling green, c1900s.
