The park is well used and loved by many. For instance, there are dog walkers and fitness groups throughout the day, school children before and after school, families throughout the week, and sports teams and clubs in the evenings and at weekends. It is a welcoming green space for visitors to the city, and it hosts many, varied, community events throughout the year. The park is also used by youth groups, schools and other organisations. The vast open green space is a wonderful environment for everyone to relax in and to enjoy – River Park is certainly a place to play and it is freely open to all.

History/Context

You may ask why River Park came into being in the first place. It was a legacy from the Alfred the Great 1000-year celebrations in 1901, which included the unveiling in September 1901 of the great King’s statue, created by Sir Hamo Thorneycroft, in the Broadway.

The main man behind those celebrations, Mayor Alfred Bowker, felt strongly there should be a legacy to commemorate Alfred, “the Founder of the Kingdom and Nation” (as was written on the plaque below the statue), and the Winchester residents agreed. Together, they decided that the legacy should take the form of a purchase by the city and its residents of the Hyde Abbey Gateway and the River Park area, including what is now Hyde Abbey Garden. These monuments and pieces of land all hold historic connections to King Alfred in that, in 1110, monks took Alfred’s remains, together with those of his wife Alswitha and their son Edward the Elder (and some well-loved saints), through the city from the Old Minster to be reburied in the newly commissioned Great Church of Hyde Abbey.

There was a fund-raising exercise amongst residents and, with a loan arranged from the Local Government Board, to be paid back through an additional levy on local rates, the purchase was agreed in 1902 with the Barrow Simmonds family. This was an important Winchester family, much involved with good deeds in Winchester, who had bought the land (the former Hyde Abbey Barton Farm) from the family of Jane Austen’s brother Edward Knight, whose name was changed from Austen as part of an inheritance.

The Recreation Ground, as it became known, took some time to become established, as the land required to be raised, because of the flood risk, and levelled for the playing fields. This was not without some friction between the city and its ratepayers because of the spiralling costs. But from 1908 the football pitches were available, boats for hire in the streams from 1909 and the construction of the bowling green was started in 1910.

River Park is a very historic site and it was an integral part of Hyde Abbey. The Abbey was a large Benedictine monastery which owned meadowland to the east, now the Recreation Ground. It was dissolved by King Henry VIII’s henchman, Sir Thomas Wriothsley, in 1538. The chancel of the Great Church is now marked by Hyde Abbey Garden, created in 2003 as Winchester’s Jubilee project and designed by Kim Wilkie, internationally renowned garden designer and Hampshire resident. The garden echoes the archaeological remains of the Abbey Church which lie beneath it.

The lower holly trees with their frames represent the external buttresses of the Church, the upper ones the internal pillars. The yew hedges indicate the presence of the north and south chapels while the stone slabs mark the sites of the three Royal graves. A glass panel designed and engraved by artist Tracey Sheppard was placed just inside the garden entrance from Alswitha Terrace. The panel depicts the pillars around the chancel and altar of the Abbey Great Church, in all its grandeur and beauty. It is particularly effective at sunrise and in the evening when the lights are on, looking through to the flint paving and graves, framed by the hollies, and the trees and meadows of River Park beyond. 

Further up King Alfred Place are to be found Hyde Gate and Chamber, which together formed part of the conveyance in 1902. This is the gatehouse that commanded the entrance between inner and outer precincts of the Abbey and opposite lies St Bartholomew’s Church, built for the use of pilgrims and lay-brothers. The Gateway and St Bartholomew’s Church form a living reminder of Hyde Abbey. They are both listed buildings: Hyde Gate is a Grade 1 listed Scheduled National Monument and St Bartholomew’s carries a Grade II* listing.

Coming back to the parkland, the area of the Skate Park and the Indoor Bowls Club is considered to be where the Danish Giant, Colbrand, was defeated by Guy of Warwick in battle in the 900’s. This incident gave the area the name ‘Danemark Mead’. A school bearing this name was established to the south of River Park in 1912: it was later renamed as St Bede’s Primary School. When Barrow Simonds was asked in 1908 to sanction the building of the school on the covenanted land he refused, saying this in a letter to the Town Clerk: “In reply to yours of the 2lst instant, I sold the land to the Citizens of Winchester for a Recreation Ground and not for building purposes. My own opinion is that it is not advisable to build on a portion of it as proposed. I cannot think that the Citizens generally would desire this. If there were really a manifest feeling in favour of the building, possibly I should yield to their wishes”.

The covenant in the 1902 conveyance to the city and its residents only allows for a public park and recreational use and the only buildings permitted in that covenant are the park keeper’s lodge cottage (where the Colour Factory is now), and buildings for public recreation or public scientific-type purposes. The now redundant Leisure Centre building, the Indoor Bowls Club and the Skate Park all fall within the description, and so this area continues to be protected by the covenant. Friends of River Park submit that any future use of the site should respect the covenant so that River Park remains in public ownership, for public recreational use.