Allotments were established on Woodhouse Moor in February 1917. These were all completely removed in 1923. Allotments were re-established in March 1940 as part of the “Dig for Victory” campaign. These were removed in 1953, and replaced by a smaller area comprising 92 allotments. The council said that these were temporary and would be removed when the emergency (rationing) was over. They are still in place today.
The barbecue warden is seen here with a colleague patrolling the park in his buggy, ensuring that no one attempts to have a barbecue. Some may have forgotten what a scourge barbeques were until 2010, when Labour took control of the council and began to enforce the bylaw prohibiting barbeques. Prior to that, in fine weather, there were hundreds of barbeques every day, with the attendant mess having to be cleared the next day by parks staff. It usually took them all morning. Left behind were scorched grass and quite often, the remains of large bonfires which had been fuelled by branches torn from trees and park benches. In 2008, the fire brigade were called out over fifty times at a total cost of more than £100k to extinguish fires caused by poorly disposed-of barbeques.
It’s always nice to see people engaged in the sort of fun activities that parks were intended for, and which cause no offence to anyone else.
The skatepark is, as it always is, covered in graffiti. It should either be:
And what are our councillors doing about the problem? As much as you can see with your eyes closed.
It seems that people who are determined to bring their vehicles onto the park, will not be deterred either by bollards across the entrances to paths, or railings around the park perimeter. They remove the bollards and they saw through the railings. There has been an increase recently in the number of occasions sections of railing have been sawn through and removed.
It does seem strange that a building that was gifted to the council and intended to be used freely by local people, should be privately rented and closed at the very time that it could be serving tea, coffee or cake to park users. What is going on?
Every so often (it’s by no means a common occurrence), an air ambulance lands on Cinder Moor. Whilst it’s true that Cinder Moor was designated as a heliport in 1953 (in the city’s twenty year plan) it was re-designated as green space in 1973. So, one wonders what authority the air ambulance service has to be using the park as an overflow landing pad for helicopters. It’s interesting to see from the above photograph, just how small the ungrassed area of Cinder Moor really is.
Monument Moor used to be home to an outdoor gymnasium, and neighbouring Cinder Moor was used for cricket and football. Hopefully both parts of the Moor can once again be used for sport now that the trolleybus scheme has been rejected.