Memories of Cardiff

Cardiff is blessed with many parks, straddling the city from the sea to Caerphilly mountain. They range from the riverside beauty of Bute Park in its heart to the newest, the hillside Cefn Onn. So much see and enjoy 

My favourite as a youngster was Roath Park, with its paddle boats, rowing boats and the adventure playground.

I used to swim in the lake, changing in the row of cubicles on the bank, before swimming was banned due to pollution from by the stream running through it.

The park was donated to the city in 1887 by the Marquess of Bute as a quid pro quo for permission to build roads and develop the surrounding area. The 30 acre lake, almost a third of the park area, was excavated by hand on scrubland once described as a ’malodorous lake’.

Cardiff is rare in having at its heart a beautiful riverside park, the former grounds of the castle, also provided by the generous Marquess, again not solely for altruistic reasons.

Bute Park and Sophia Gardens stretch northwards along the River Taff for over a mile, linking with Llandaff  Fields.

Sophia Gardens, created in 1854 on the site of the Plasturton farm was the first publicly accessible park in Wales. Capability Brown, who designed and landscaped, it would have been shocked two hundred years later to see his work desecrated by the monstrous Sophia Gardens pavilion, opened in 1951 as part of the Festival of Britain.

It was a 2,500 seat old aircraft hangar, brought from Stormy Down aerodrome in Pyle. Over the years it staged a huge range of events including boxing, pop and classical concerts. The acoustics were terrible, as was seating and the view of the stage, due to the lack of a sloping floor.

Standing in as reluctant deputy music critic of the South Wales Argus in 1957 I covered the the farewell to Wales performance of the internationally famous tenor Gigli. 

The unloved pavilion had an ignominious end: it collapsed under a mountain of snow in the bitter January 1982 Cardiff white-out.

In 1892 Thompson’s Park became the city’s first public park. Formerly the private garden of the Thompson family it was designed from and landscaped by Charles Thompson who donated it to the city. It is grade 2 listed historic park.

The nationally acclaimed success of the city’s parks is due to two families, the Pettigrews and Nelmes. 

Cardiff’s largest park by area is Trelai, 130 acres, now mostly recreational, with sports pitches. For many years from 1855 it included the long abandoned Ely racecourse.

Rivalling Roath Park as a favourite is Victoria Park, opened in 1898 to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee. Its original bandstand lasted 100 years until 1998 to be replaced later.

For many years the park’s most popular attraction was Billy the Seal who lived in the pond and who is commemorated by a statue.The park’s latest fame is as a regular setting for the BBCs Dr Who.

The national acclaim for Cardiff’s parks is due to two families, the Pettigrews and the Nelmes.

William Pettigrew and his younger brother Andrew were from 1891 to 1936 successively chief gardener, parks superintendent and chief parks officer. They were followed byWilliam Nelmes and his son Bill who retired as Director of Parks in 1982, the same day I left  South Glamorgan county council.

He was a national award winning gardener with experience gained at Kew Gardens. The former park heads lived in a substantial house in the park, now demolished.

Those are just a few of the parks and playing fields that make Cardiff such an attractive, green city,  still giving us such pleasure.