Day 47. The Park

Today we shall move onto a once -conic feature of Preston, of which just a few clues remain as to its former presence.

Antiquarian James West purchased Alscot Park and the village of Preston in 1747, and he soon set about creating an elaborate parkland, then an essential feature of stately homes. He incorporated some riverside meadows into a deer park which survives today (see Day 14), and this was followed by several acres of farmland rising above the river in the 1760s. The latter is now farmland again.

 

       The elaborate park gate posts, which hint at the story behind this farmland.

James set his architects to work designing various structures for the park in accordance with current fashions.

Several millennia earlier, obelisks had been built in the newly-explored country of Egypt in honour of their sun god. Antiquarians began to carry them off to England, and replicas were built by those who couldn't procure an original. James' obelisk was designed by a local architect in the 1750s.

A Chinese-style temple, with steps leading up from the river, was also commissioned. Its location can be seen beside the footpath as a raised mound of earth. Chinoiserie, or Chinese-inspired buildings, became fashionable in the mid 18^th century.

A rotunda was built near the temple. This fifty-foot high octagonal building had a domed roof and a marble floor, on which children would secretly dance.

Another small building, colloquially called the 'Kissing Seat', was built by the river. This was intended as a place to admire the river and the deer park opposite, and is the only structure in the park to survive.

                        The Kissing Seat.

The remainder of the display of 18^th century elegance and grandeur is now long gone. It seems the buildings were removed by the late 19^th century, and only raised mounds of earth betray their former existence.