3-053-404 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Stamford Public Park, Ashton-Under-Lyne, 1873. 'The busy cotton-manufacturing town of Ashton-under-Lyne, seven or eight miles east of Manchester, is connected by manorial and territorial proprietorship with the Earl of Stamford and Warrington (Grey of Groby), who has an "Old Hall," with a feudal dungeon, adjacent to the town. His Lordship has made the town a liberal gift of some twenty-five acres of valuable land, with the remission of a chief rent upon other land, towards the formation of a public park for the people. The effort to obtain such a park began with the bequest of £300 a year for that purpose by the late Mr. Samuel Oldham, who died in 1858, and it has been most actively promoted by Mr. J. R. Coulthart, who was, if we mistake not, lately Mayor of the borough; while there is also a Mayor of the manor, in the person of Mr. J. Fletcher. Large donations have been made by Mr. F. Astley and others, and a fair amount has been raised by subscription among the working classes. The park is made of ground adjoining Highfield House, lately occupied by Mr. A. Harrison, which is shown in our view'. A crowd of 60,000-80,000 people turned out to see the Earl of Stamford formally open the new facility on 12 July 1873. From "Illustrated London News", 1873.