War Memorial Park

Memorial Park photographs For anyone who is interested I have been tracking the 'improvements' to the park from last October. They are nearing completion now - approaching 200 photographs in the album. You don't need to have a facebook account to access them.

Fantastic set of photos Simon, many thanks for sharing those with us all. We've always enjoyed regular visits to the Memorial Park with the family, and it's good that they're finally giving the place some well needed attention. I look forward to seeing how it all turns out when they finish.

Hello to you both. I have fond memories of the War Memorial Park from my trainspot days. Sadly, no pictures as I had lent my double sided box of over four hundred 2*2 colour slides to a friend which was destroyed in a house fire. One Saturday in the early sixties, Southampton were playing Cov City in a cup game (I think). The park was treated to the sound of Southern Region steam locomotives, hauling football specials. A smooth cased West Country (Bodmin), loco was one of them, possibly the first and only time such a class seen on the single line from Leamington. Can any trainspotters on here confirm or tell me of any others?

Well done Philip, I don't suppose they will include an aviary like they had many years ago. That was my first stop as a child - just had to walk to the left of the main gates. Keep on clicking

I'm sure Philip loves the praise, but in this case it was Simon (Brother Joybert) who took all these great photos of the park!

Ooops! Quite so,my apologies to Simon. Even so does anyone remember the aviary ? I think maybe you would have to go back to early childhood days, It was very nice to see the birds but I think it fizzled down to just feathers at the bottom of the cages in the end.

Yes, and especially the peacock. Also the rock garden, miniature railway, crazy golf, pony rides, various ponds and of course the ice cream caravan by the entrance which was never open!

The bird that always facinated me as a schoolboy was the golden pheasant. I used to call it the judge bird, because it looked as though it wore a wig.

The late, Jack Owen, a design engineer from Courtaulds Engineering, was one of the brigade who looked after the miniture railway in the park. He lived in Kenilworth and had a home workshop where he built & maintained his fleet of miniture live-steam locomotives. My favorite was his King Arthur class loco, which would easily pull twenty people along. We enjoyed some good times, he & I, both with his 'heavy engineering' as I used to call it and also where he enjoyed Saturday evening supper times with my family, having a shunt in my goods yard as he used to call it. I so miss him.

I'm pretty certain there were although I never saw one myself. The Leamington line was often used by the Southampton-Blackpool express. I think I've seen a photo of this being hauled by a Britannia so it is reasonable to assume it was previously hauled by a Southern Pacific of some kind? A rebuilt Battle-of-Britain class definitely visited Coventry with a special full of Cathedral tourists in 1962: Railways of Warwickshire My grandmother visited the Dutch refugee camp in Willenhall circa 1945. I know for a fact she arrived from the South-East coast on a Merchant Navy hauled train. Whether the same engine made the journey all the way to Coventry I couldn't possible say.

Can any one help me out here. The trees used to have the names of the fallen from the 1st world war I think, when I was little we often went to the park to see "uncle Bill's tree. He died at the Somme in 1917 when he was 21 years old.. I never understood the significance as a child and never thought about it until the recent death of our last living in Coventry family member and we all returned for the funeral and a walk down memory lane. I have looked through various history stuff on the park but can not find anything to confirm the tree thing other than my distant memory.

I could be mistaken but I vaguely remember the trees on Hearsall Common having plaques to commemorate the war dead?

The trees in the Memorial park do have plaques with names on in rememberance of the brave men killed serving our Country during the war. I live within walking distance of the park and often stop to read them on my walks over there.

Went home last weekend and as it was a nice day on Sunday, decided to have a walk around the War Memorial Park and take a look at the improvements. Now I accept that it's winter with very little colour and it all looks very stark,(although winter has a beauty of it's own) and we have been battered by high winds recently, but I have to say the park looked a bit of a mess. Going to take another look later in the year, hope it looks a lot better then.

There is some info here, including a further link to some interesting publications. Hope this helps... Commemorative Plaques