Building Wembley Stadium, 100 years ago - a special anniversary article

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

1. (Photo of the new Wembley Stadium in 2007 by Roy Beddard)

 

This month sees the centenary of the opening of Wembley Stadium. Most of us will have watched the new stadium being built, between 2003 and 2007. This article will share the story, and some pictures, of the first stadium being constructed.

 

It was on a snowy day in January 1922 that the Duke of York ceremonially dug out the first turf for the stadium, but it was another three months before construction really got underway. The stadium had been designed by Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton, with consulting engineer, Sir Owen Williams, to be built of reinforced concrete. Sir Robert McAlpine & Sons were appointed as contractors, because they had experience of using this relatively new technique. They hired more than 1,000 men, many of them unemployed ex-servicemen from the First World War, to provide the labour.

 

2. The early stages of constructing the stadium at Wembley Park, mid-1922.
(From Geoffrey Hewlett’s 2002 book “Wembley”)

 

The site chosen for the stadium was at the top of a hill, where the ill-fated Wembley Tower had once stood in the Wembley Park Pleasure Grounds. The four craters, where the tower’s foundations had been dynamited, had to be removed, to prepare for where the football pitch would be, while construction of the terraces and stands which would hold 125,000 spectators went on around it.

 

There was a very tight schedule for the work, as the organisers of the British Empire Exhibition, which the stadium would form part of (that’s why it was known as the Empire Stadium for many years), had agreed that the Football Association could hold their Cup Final there in 1923. Britain’s top playing fields expert, Charles Perry, was tasked with preparing the pitch, and on his instructions sections of the fairways and greens on the former Wembley Park Golf Course were fenced off to provide the turf.

 

3. The stadium construction site, September 1922. (From Geoffrey Hewlett’s 2002 book “Wembley”)

 

The clay ground at Wembley would not provide good drainage, so Perry sloped this down towards the edges of the pitch, allowing water to run-off. Then he laid layers of clinker and cinders, 10 inches (25cm) thick, across the area, and topped this off with at least 5 inches of top soil. By September he was ready to start laying the turf, which was cut in 18” x 12” (45cm x 30cm) rectangles, 2½ inches thick. These were moved to the stadium on flat-bed trolleys and butted together straight away. Laying the pitch took a month, but by keeping the grass growing the “hallowed turf” of the Wembley pitch was ready by the end of October 1922.

 

 4. The structural steelwork for the stands and terraces, winter 1922/23. (From an old film)

 

By this time, the 1,400 tons of structural steelwork that would support the stands and terraces was being put in place. From then on, it was concrete which would be the main material used, 25,000 tons of it in all. Wooden formwork was put in place, miles of steel reinforcing rods were cut and inserted, and the concrete poured in by the workmen, from barrows or buckets.

 

  5. Workmen building the outer concrete wall of the stadium, winter 1922/23. (From an old film)

 

There was little in the way of “health and safety” then. The men wore their ordinary working clothes, with cloth caps, not hard hats. It was heavy, physical, manual labour, with wages only around £1 a week, plus extra for any overtime. And with their hard work, the stadium was beginning to take shape.

 

6. The North Stand under construction, December 1922. (From an old film)

 

It was on the north side of the stadium, looking out over the British Empire Exhibition site and towards Wembley Park Station, that Ayrton and Williams had designed their feature wall. Using the ability of semi-liquid concrete to run into moulds, then keep that shape when set, they delivered the iconic frontage that would symbolise Wembley Stadium for the next 80 years. This was emerging from the site by February 1923.

 

 

7. Work on the North Front of the stadium, February 1923. (From a 1923 McAlpine’s brochure)

 

The domed tops of the twin towers, with their concrete flag poles capped with concrete crowns, were the last parts to be finished. The photograph below gives an idea of the fairly primitive (by today’s standards) method of getting the concrete to the top of the formwork. It was carried by teams of workmen up ramps in buckets, which were then raised by rope and pulley to the men above!

 

 

8. Constructing one of the twin towers, February 1923.
(From “Glorious Wembley” by Howard Bass, 1982)

 

By April 1923, the stadium was finished. It had taken just 300 working days to build (not four years, like the new Wembley!). Sir Owen Williams, speaking about the choice of concrete for Wembley, said: ‘Its architectural possibilities, its adaptability, and its rapidity of construction demanded attention, but these alone were not the decisive factor. It was the economy of concrete which compelled its use.’ Wembley’s Empire Stadium had cost £750,000 to construct, equivalent to around £57m today. The new Wembley Stadium, when completed in 2007, had cost £798m.

 

Just one thing remained to be done before the 1923 FA Cup Final could take place on 28 April. The structure of the stadium had to be tested, to make sure that it was safe for spectators to use. All 1,200 workmen on the site had to march round the stadium as a group, visiting all parts of the terraces and stands. Following instructions and in unison, they had to stamp their feet, lean against the safety rails, and sit down then up on the seats, to recreate the effect of the crowds at an actual event.

 

 

9. 1,200 workmen, testing a section of the terraces, April 1923. (From an old film)

 

One of the first aerial photographs of the completed stadium was taken by the Kilburn-based Central Aircraft Company. In this picture (below) you can see the open terraces at either end, and the covered sections along the sides, which included the seats for 30,000 spectators, as well as the Royal Box. The pitch has been mowed, ready for a football match. But outside the stadium walls, it still looks like a construction site, and there is little sign of the pavilions which would house nations from across the British Empire at the exhibition that would open just one year later.

 

  

10. An aerial view of the stadium, from the east, April 1923. (Image from the internet)

 

 

11. The stadium during the British Empire Exhibition in 1924. (Brent Archives – WHS Collection)

 

Sir Robert McAlpine (proud of his firm’s achievements) called the stadium: ‘... a triumph of modern engineering.’ Through the efforts of Arthur Elvin and others, it would go on to become a world famous “Venue of Legends”, host an Olympic Games, World Cup and Euros football finals, numerous other sporting events, and many concerts, including Live Aid. But in 2002/03, it was demolished to make way for a new Wembley Stadium. 

 

  

 12. The concrete flagpole base in Brent River Park, near Pitfield Way. (Photo by Philip Grant, 2013)

 

The concrete marvel, built 100 years ago, has gone from Wembley – apart from one small fragment. The base of a concrete flagpole, from the top of one of the twin towers, was donated to the Council by the new stadium company in 2003, and now sits in Brent River Park, as a memorial to the original Wembley Stadium.

 

Philip Grant,
Wembley History Society,
April 2023.

Time and Tide, Treasure and Trash – mudlarking for London’s history. March 17th St Andrew's Church Hall, Kingsbury

Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

Mudlarks scavenging beside the Thames, from a 19^th century engraving.

 

In the 18^th and 19^th centuries it was not unusual to see boys from destitute families searching through the mud of the heavily polluted River Thames. They were looking for scraps of anything they could sell, bones, metal or coal, to make a few pennies and put some basic food on the table. They earned the name “mudlarks”, after a bird (officially a magpie-lark) that makes its nest from mud, which sailors returning to the Pool of London had seen on voyages to Australia.

 

Modern mudlarks search the shores of the Thames as a hobby (with permits from the Port of London Authority), looking for interesting objects which provide details from London’s history. These can date back to Roman times, or earlier, and any find of archaeological interest is reported to the Museum of London. One of these mudlarks is giving a talk at Wembley History Society on Friday 17 March:-

 

Many of the items which today’s mudlarks uncover are not treasure, but modern rubbish which has found its way into the river because too many of us don’t dispose of it the way that we should. But with practice, and advice from experienced mudlarks, a trained eye can often spot something older, and even have a good idea of what it might be. It will be fascinating to learn from Monika what she has found, and to see a selection of these items.

 

Monika engaged in her mudlarking hobby.

 

Wembley History Society welcomes visitors, not just to its members, to its talks, so that any local resident, young or old, who may be interested can enjoy them as well (there is a small charge, to help cover costs). Details are on the poster displayed above.

 

Philip Grant

Shackleton’s Antarctic Expedition – your chance to enjoy an historic talk - January 20th

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

The wreck of the “Endurance”, 2022. (Image from the internet)

 

When the wreck of the “Endurance”, located 3,000 metres down in the Antarctic’s Weddell Sea, was discovered last year, it was the result of a meticulously planned expedition. The pictures, filmed from a robot submarine, were amazing. But this month local residents will have the opportunity to see some more amazing images, taken during Ernest Shackleton’s original Antarctic expedition, between 1914 and 1917, as part of a talk at Wembley History Society, to which interested visitors will be welcome.

 

The talk is a recreation of an original lecture given by Dr Leonard Hussey, a member of the expedition team, about a remarkable adventure. It began as a scientific exploration of the Antarctic, but in 1915 the “Endurance” became trapped in the sea ice, which eventually crushed the sides of the wooden ship. When the ice began to thaw, their vessel sank, and a two-year survival journey began, across ice and sea, before the entire crew were saved.

 

Some of the crew hauling one of the ship’s lifeboats across the ice. (Image from the internet)

 

Towards the end of his life, Dr Hussey passed on the original glass slides from his talk, and his notes, to a new custodian, so that people could continue to see and hear a first-hand account of the expedition’s story. In 2000, Geoff Selley became the latest custodian, and as well as presenting the talk, via powerpoint, he will be bringing some of those glass slides and other artifacts from the expedition, for people to see on 20 January.

 

Frank Hurley filming Antarctic wildlife. (Image from the internet)

 

Leonard Hussey’s words are brought to life by the original pictures taken by the expedition’s photographer, Frank Hurley. Shackleton could not have chosen a better man than this Australian, who not only captured the Antarctic’s wildlife (his original brief), but also the highs and lows of the expedition’s survival story, after disaster struck their ship.

 

Wembley History Society is pleased to be able to offer the chance to attend this talk, not just to its members, but to any local resident, young or old, who may be interested (for a small charge, to help cover costs). Details are on the poster displayed above.

 

Philip Grant.

An Olympic Games tile mural – let’s get it back on permanent display!

 Guest post by local Historian Philip Grant in a personal capacity

 

On 1 January 2022 I shared with you an open letter that I’d sent to Quintain’s Chief Executive Officer, seeking his agreement that his company would not seek to renew its advertisement consent, covering the tile murals on the walls of Olympic Way. I thought I’d made a good case, and was very pleased to receive a positive response two months later.

 

The sports tile murals on the east wall of Olympic Way, back on display in August 2022.

 

As well as uncovering the American Football, Rugby League and Ice Hockey tile mural scenes in 2022, Quintain’s Wembley Park company also commissioned a new mural. This replaced the missing section of the former “Live Aid” mural, beside the drummer which was the only section left of the original 1993 design. Since it was completed last November, Paul Marks’s “Reverb” mural has been added to the Wembley Park Art Trail.

 

The ”Reverb” tile mural, nearing completion in November 2022.

 

Regular readers will know that Wembley History Society has been campaigning since April 2018 to get Quintain and Brent Council to put all of the Bobby Moore Bridge tile murals, celebrating Wembley’s sports and entertainment heritage, back on permanent public display. Our first success was the mural scene in the subway, showing England footballers playing at the “twin towers” Wembley Stadium, which was left uncovered when Quintain (with Brent Council’s consent) replaced their vinyl advertising sheets in the subway with LED light panels.

 

The “Footballers” mural, flanked by LED light panels.

 

Now, 2023 provides an opportunity to get another of the subway’s mural scenes back on display. As well as marking the centenary of the original Wembley Stadium, the year will also be the 75^th anniversary of the 1948 London Olympic Games, for which Olympic Way was built. I hope that it will also see the mural celebrating those Games uncovered, in recognition of that important part of Wembley’s sporting heritage.

 

The Olympic Torch tile mural, beside a photograph from the 1948 Games opening ceremony.

 

So, this New Year I’ve sent another open letter to Quintain’s Chief Executive Officer, James Saunders. This is its full text:

 

This is an open letter

1 January 2023

Dear Mr Saunders, 

 

The 1948 Olympic Torch tile mural at Bobby Moore Bridge, Wembley Park.

 

Happy New Year! 2022 was a good year for Olympic Way, and I am hoping that, with your support, 2023 can be even better.

 

Following my 1 January 2022 letter to you, and your reply of 2 March, it was good to see the three sporting tile mural scenes on the east wall of Olympic Way back on permanent display from August 2022. They have been appreciated and enjoyed by residents and visitors ever since. More recently, the “Reverb” mural by Paul Marks, on the opposite wall beside the original drummer, has brightened up that space, although I must admit to some disappointment that it could not have related more closely with the “Live Aid” stadium concert theme.

 

During 2022, I have continued to work with Quintain’s Wembley Park team on projects to promote the history of Olympic Way. There are several additions to enhance the sharing of that history with visitors nearing completion, but I am writing to suggest another one.

 

In April 2023 we will celebrate the centenary of the original Wembley Stadium, and in July 2023 the 75^th anniversary of the 1948 London Olympic Games, for which Olympic Way was built. One of the tile murals in the Bobby Moore Bridge subway, the first scene on the left as you come down the steps from the station, was designed to celebrate that heritage at the start of the famous route to the stadium:-

 

This mural, which depicts an Olympic torch relay runner on his way to the stadium for the opening ceremony of the 1948 Games, with the Olympic flag behind him, is currently hidden behind LED light panels. My suggestion is that this mural scene should be uncovered, and put on display for the 75^th anniversary in July 2023 (and hopefully, permanently). 

 

The Olympic Torch mural is next to the “footballers” mural scene, which is already on display, so that it should not be too difficult to extend the lighting “frame” around that scene to include this mural celebrating the 1948 Olympic Games at Wembley Park, once the three or four light panels covering it, and their supports, have been removed.

 

I will email a digital copy of this letter to members of your team at Wembley Park, who I am already in touch with over other local history enhancements for Olympic Way. 

 

I look forward to hearing from you that displaying the Olympic Games mural scene will be another addition to those enhancements by the summer of 2023. Thank you.

 

Yours sincerely,

Philip Grant.

Wembley History Society Christmas Picture Quiz - the answers!

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

 

Thank you to everyone who had a go at last weekend’s Wembley History Society Christmas Picture Quiz, 2022. It was a chance to take a short break from a number of more serious issues covered by “Wembley Matters”, and I hope you enjoyed it. 

 

I included a clue, ‘in 1923’, in question 2, so hopefully at least those of you who remember the original Wembley Stadium (demolished twenty years ago) will have spotted that the men in the photograph were building one of Wembley’s “twin towers”. 

 

Workers building the concrete walls of the Stadium, winter 1922/23. (Screenshot from an old film)

 

Next year will mark the centenary of the building which made the name of our district famous around the world. We will celebrate that in 2023, but I wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to the workers who built this reinforced concrete landmark in just 300 days (without the benefit of modern machinery, or hard hats!).

 

Were there a few of the pictures that you didn’t know the answers to? If that’s the case, you have the chance over the Christmas / New Year break to discover more about Wembley’s past. I’ve included “links” with most of the answers, which will take you to illustrated articles giving more information, if you want to take advantage of them.

If you were feeling competitive, you can now see how many of the questions you got the right answers to. There are no prizes, but if you want to publish your score out of ten (just to let others know how well, or badly, you did), you are welcome to add a comment below – only honest claims, please!

Philip Grant,
for Wembley History Society.

 

It’s time for another Christmas Picture Quiz!

 For the past two years, “Wembley Matters” readers have been invited to have a go at the Wembley History Society Christmas Picture Quiz. If you fancy testing yourself (gently) with this year’s quiz, the “question paper” is attached below.

 

There are ten photographs again this year, but only one question with each. All of them are to do with the area covered by the former Borough of Wembley (which from 1934 included the previous Urban District of Kingsbury), which the Society was set up to promote the history of in 1952.

A stained glass window with the Borough of Wembley’s coat of arms,
which was in the Council Chamber at the Town Hall at Forty Lane until 1965.

See how many questions you know the answers to. Share the quiz with friends and family living locally, if you think they’ll enjoy it too.

 

The quiz is just for fun (no prizes!), and you’ll get the answers on this blog site in a few days’ time. And as before, the more questions you don’t know the answers to, the more you’ll discover then about Wembley. Good luck!

Philip Grant.

 

 

Fryent Country Park extra! – Horse racing at Bush Farm

I am grateful to Philip Grant for this latest investigation into our rich local history 

Two years ago, I wrote the first of a series of articles about the history of the area which is now Fryent Country Park. In six parts, this told its story from more than 1,000 years ago up to the present day, but there are always new things which can come to light.

 

As a result of a reader’s comment, the “Cold War” story of the bunker on Gotfords Hill was uncovered in an “extra” article. Now, an enquiry from William, who is researching the history of horse racing in Victorian times, has led to the discovery of another piece of Fryent Country Park’s story that we didn’t know before.

 

Bush Farm stables, at the entrance to the Country Park from Slough Lane.

 

Steeplechases organised by John Elmore of Uxendon Farm in mid-Victorian times were mentioned in Part 2 of The Preston Story. As early as April 1830, Elmore was involved in organising a private race match between the wealthy owners of two top horses, “Niagara” and “Wonder”, for a stake of £300 each. “Niagara”, with Captain Martin Becher (whose name now graces a famous Grand National fence at Aintree) in the saddle, won the four-mile contest for the horse’s owner, Mr Caldecott.

 

A Harrow Steeplechase from 1864 pictured in a sporting paper. (Courtesy of William Morgan)

 

The cross-country course from Brockley Hill to Elmore’s farm on the northern edge of Barn Hill became the scene of further high stakes steeplechases. Another course, around the fields of Uxendon and Forty Farms, also proved popular with spectators, although a water jump across the Wealdstone Brook proved fatal to several horses before the approach to it was improved. John Elmore continued as organiser of and host to racing at Uxendon until the early 1860s.

 

The original enquiry Wembley History Society received was about the racecourse at Hendon, run by William Perkins Warner, the landlord of the Old Welsh Harp. I wrote about him in Part 2 of the Welsh Harp Reservoir Story, and mentioned that he had organised big horse racing meetings as part of the attractions that brought thousands of visitors to his tavern. What I didn’t realise at the time was that his steeplechases, that went across the fields of Kingsbury, were not run from the Welsh Harp itself!

 

The Grandstand at Warner’s Welsh Harp racecourse. (From the late Geoffrey Hewlett’s collection)

 

Warner had taken on the lease of the tavern, and the fishery on its adjacent reservoir, in 1858. By February 1862, he was one of the promoters of a horse race meeting, with a course that began and ended in a field beside the inn. A report on this experimental meeting, in the “Bell’s Life” sporting newspaper, said that it was: ‘just sufficiently satisfactory to prove that something much better might, with judicious management, be brought to issue.’

 

A two-day race meeting in September 1862 drew large crowds to the Welsh Harp, and by 1864 this Hendon fixture was a regular feature of the racing calendar. “The Era” wrote in 1865: ‘the Meeting held on the ground in the rear of the Welsh Harp, Hendon, on Thursday and Friday, must be pronounced the very best ever seen under the auspices of Mr Warner, who has done all in his power to place the affair on a respectable and permanent footing.’ 

 

By this time, Warner had begun organising steeplechase races, over artificial fences, on his course beside the Welsh Harp, but these did not do as well. In December 1866, in conjunction with Edward Topham (the famous handicapper, who staged the Grand National at his Aintree course), leased land from Joseph Goodchild of Bush Farm, and put on the “Metropolitan Grand Steeplechases, Kingsbury (Edgware)”. 

 

A hedge between two fields on the Bush Farm land, with Harrow Hill in the distance.

 

The course they designed for the two-day meeting was described by the “Sporting Times” as one of the best around London. The oval-shaped course was a mile and a quarter long, and each lap included seven natural fences. These would have been existing hedges between the farm’s hay meadows, cut down to a manageable size for the horses to jump, along a course marked by wooden posts. But where exactly did this race course go? 

 

The site of Bush Farm still exists, and its fields were saved from housing development by Middlesex County Council, who bought the land from All Souls College in 1938, to create the Fryent Way Regional Open Space. Although the course never appeared on any published map, a series of sketches from a meeting in September 1875, published in “The Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News”, did supply some clues.

 

“Kingsbury Showers”, some sketches from a rather wet autumn race meeting in 1875.
(Courtesy of William Morgan)

 

Several of the sketches showing racegoers at this Kingsbury meeting include details of the landscape in the background. I decided to take some of these images with me, when I went for a walk on the Country Park on a bright January day, to see whether I could identify where the artist had been standing when he drew them. I believe that I had some success!

 

The approach to Bush Farm from Slough Lane, 1875 and 2022.

 

I’ve coloured in the landscape details on an extract from the sketches, to help with the comparison. I’m certain that racegoers approached the course up the driveway to the farm from Slough Lane. The present Stables building is in the same place as a farm building in the sketch, and may even still have part of the earlier structure within its construction.

 

Looking west across Bush Farm’s Home Field, 1875 and 2022.

 

I think that this second pair of “then and now” images are again viewed from about the same place. The shape of the distant hills against the skyline is very similar, as is the slope of the land. The course was described as having an uphill run-in to the finish of 300 yards, and you can just make out the “matchstick” figures of two horses and their riders approaching the final fence at the far side of the field. That would fit with the distance from the bottom corner of Home Field to where the grandstand appears in the 1875 sketch. 

 

The original steeplechase course was described as a pear-shaped oval, with the stand at its narrow end. As Bush Farm was leased from All Souls College, all of its fields will have been within Kingsbury Parish. Using all of this information, I have set out what I believe is a possible route for the mile and a quarter (ten furlongs) course, which does cross seven hedges.

 

Possible 1866 Kingsbury Vale steeplechase course (in brown), marked on an 1895 O.S. map.

 

Overnight rain between the two days of the original race meeting at Bush Farm in December 1866 ‘reduced the ground to the “slough of despond” ’. If you’ve taken a walk on Fryent Country Park in winter, you’ll understand the problems that wet clay, especially when churned up by galloping horses, would have caused. A low-lying field, like “Honey Slough” (on the left as you come down Fryent Way from Kingsbury Circle, after passing Valley Drive) did not get its name for no reason!

 

Future December meetings here were often troubled by wet ground or frost, and by competition from a Christmas meeting at Kempton Park (which still continues), but Spring and Autumn race meetings proved popular. This kept the Bush Farm course, known as “Kingsbury Vale”, in use for a dozen years. The course was lengthened to two miles, by going over the fields north of Barn Hill as far as Uxendon Farm. Part of its appeal was the open hay meadows and natural hedges, and racing papers such as “Bell’s Life” referred to it as ‘the charming Kingsbury Vale’.

 

Looking north-east across Meade and Warrens fields on ‘the charming Kingsbury Vale’ course.

 

Crowds of 10.000 were not uncommon at the course, despite the lanes leading to it being narrow and in poor condition. Part of the attraction was the number of runners, including some good quality horses, attracted by the prize money offered by Warner to the winners. You can see him (with the beard) in one of the 1875 sketches above, alongside the caption “Cup presented by the owner”. 

 

The drink which was freely available (also supplied by Warner, from his Welsh Harp tavern) and the opportunity for betting, on races that (as far as Warner could ensure) were not “fixed”, were also reasons why these race meetings were popular. But they were not popular with everyone! By 1873, letters from local residents were appearing in “The Times”, and other papers, complaining about the ‘ruffians’ and ‘thousands of the biggest scoundrels and blackguards’ which the race meetings attracted to Kingsbury.

 

Warner found himself before the Magistrates Court several times for allowing illegal cash betting to take place on the course. Prosecuted for this offence at the December 1877 meeting, he was fined £7-10s plus costs, despite providing evidence that he’d done his best to prevent it. The fine was relatively small, but a bigger blow came when the Edgware magistrates refused him a licence to sell refreshments (alcohol!) at his race meetings. 

 

The loss of income from drink sales meant there was now little profit for Warner from this horse racing venture. The final straw came when the December 1878 meeting had to be cancelled because of frost, and the Kingsbury Vale course was abandoned. It would have become illegal anyway, under the Racecourses Licencing Act of 1879, which banned unlicenced horse racing within 12 miles of Marble Arch.

 

I’m glad that dealing with the enquiry has helped to identify where the Kingsbury Vale race course was. It has also given me the chance to share its story with you. I am grateful to William Morgan for allowing me to use information from his forthcoming book, “Strongholds of Satan” (volume 1 – covering the lost Victorian race courses of the south-east and East Anglia), to help tell that story.

 

Young people enjoying a horse ride on Fryent Country Park. (Photos courtesy of the Bush Farm Collective).

 

Horse racing at Bush Farm ended more than 140 years ago, but there are still a few horses kept at the stables on its former site, which continue grace the fields of this part of Kingsbury. Now, they are not ridden to jump the blackthorn hedges, but to give enjoyment to youngsters (and some adults) for recreation, as part of the many attractions of Fryent Country Park.

Philip Grant.