Graham Young explores a Solihull park which looks like new again after a £1million makeover.
Seven of the 28 parks in leafy Solihull have a coveted Keep Britain Tidy green flag – but not the one which you might think of first.
The conjoined Malvern and Brueton parks have a flag between them and there are more flying over parks called Shirley, Elmdon, Knowle, Dorridge, Lavender Hall and Meriden.
Missing in action – though surely not for much longer – is Tudor Grange, just a stone’s throw from the Touchwood Shopping Centre.
Five years ago, this park was looking ragged around the edges. It was the runt of the borough’s jewels and not immune to litter.
Two centuries ago the land was part of Garret’s Green Farm in Whitefields Road.
Tudor Grange Hall, now part of the Solihull College Blossomfield Campus, was built in 1886. Alfred Frederick Bird, director of Birmingham’s famous custard company, lived there until 1922 and his widow until 1943. After being used by the Red Cross during the Second World War, Solihull’s council bought the land in 1946 and opened the park some 60 years ago.
Its more recently fading fortunes began to change in January 2008 when the Tudor Grange Leisure Centre opened close to Blossomfield Road.
Land previously beneath the demolished 1960s Norman Green Sports Centre was reseeded only last month as part of the park’s wider £1 million revamp.
The results are stunning because the mature Tudor Grange park of old suddenly also looks brand new.
Solihull’s head park ranger, Tracey Churchard, is thrilled and the restoration of Tudor Grange is a real highlight of her 14 years’ work with the council.
Whereas Handsworth Park was recently restored to its Victorian standards at a cost of almost £10 million, Solihull’s parks are all too young to qualify for similar heritage funding, making Tudor Grange’s transformation all the more impressive.
The park gleams with stainless steel benches, litter bins and signposts, new pathways, fresh borders and beautiful, semi-mature native trees, clearly in rude health.
