Horsham Park – Timeline
Stoolball being played in Park House gardens – picture courtesy of Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
Park House (Grade II* listed)
1701 John Wicker built Park House around the core of a medieval burgage house known as ‘Cockmans’ which had been struck by lightning and badly damaged in the summer.
1800s Robert Hurst purchased Park House, garden and parkland (following enclosure of Horsham Common in 1813).
The park becomes public
1914-1918 – The Park is used for events, activities, fund raising and celebrations to mark the end of WWI. This is illustrated by the poster for a military display in 1915, courtesy of Horsham Museum and Art Gallery.
1927 Colonel A R Hurst approaches Horsham Urban Council to see if they would like to buy Park House and gardens and a portion of the current park. The purchase is finalised in 1928 via loans and taxpayers were asked to pay an additional 1D tax.
The park grows
1934 Horsham’s first swimming pool was opened. A 1934 poster encouraged people to visit the new pool, supplied courtesy of Horsham Museum and Art Gallery
1938 Land was requisitioned for a casualty centre – after the war it became the park nursery.
1949 Additional land was purchased for the park.
1970s A sports centre was built – this became the bowling alley and now The Rec.
1981 An indoor swimming pool replaced the cold outdoor pool.
More recent developments
1991 Park House sensory garden was created with a central sundial sculpture.
1999 The Human Nature Garden was built on the old putting green.
2000 The Millennium Maze opened with a bronze dragon at the centre.
2001 The skatepark was created.
2002 Pavilions in the Park replaced the swimming pool and a larger playground was installed.
2008 The nursery school was moved and the area returned to parkland with a volleyball court.
2014 Horsham’s first Parkrun took place.
2016 High Places was opened.
2017 A temporary ice-rink, replaced the volleyball court. This has now been grassed over.
2018 Two new gym pods were installed to replace the old trim trail around the edge of the park.
2019 Poets’ Corner was created next to Park House.
2019 The old bandstand raised bed was turned into a bee-friendly bed with bug hotel.
Articles on Horsham Park
Would you like to read more about Horsham Park? If so, you might be interested in downloading the following:
- Notes on the park extracted from seven volumes of a History of Horsham – kindly contributed by Jeremy Knight, Horsham Museum and Art Gallery: Horsham Park Notes by Jeremy Knight
- An article about the Park by Maggie Weir Wilson, local author of ‘Secret Horsham‘ : Horsham Park 2017 by Maggie Weir Wilson This article was written in 2017 and, although there have been changes to the park, it will give you an excellent overview of the park’s development.
Protecting the park
We want to protect the park for future generations so it can be enjoyed by all. This year we successfully applied to register the park as an Asset of Community Value which gives the park some protection for the next five years. Putting the application together created a wonderful record of how much the park is loved and used by a wide range of people. We all know that – but it is good to have the evidence too!
One of our aims is to work towards protection in perpetuity via the Fields in Trust scheme.