Ilkeston - Victoria
Park As Summer Comes To An End
w/e 10 September 2006
All
this week's pictures were taken with a Kodak DX6490
If you care to look into the Archives section of Ilkeston Cam,
you'll find a number of images of Victoria Park at various times
throughout the year. But after a scorching July and a changeable
August I thought, as high pressure moved over the UK this weekend,
it would be a good time to capture a few images in the park before
the summer finally ends. We'll start with this selection of trees
as seen on the Bristol Road side of the park. A number of trees
in the park form a trail each with an identification post giving
details of its variety and origin. The tree to the right of the
image is shown to be a purple-leaved plum from Iraq.
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Standing 'neath a spreading chestnut tree on the other side of
the park the eye is drawn to one of the park's focal points -
the bandstand. The park commemorates the 60th Anniversary of
Queen Victoria’s accession in 1897 and it was a gift to
the people of Ilkeston from the Duke of Rutland.
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Victoria Park covers eight acres and from the bandstand which
is situated at the top of a slope, there is a good overview of
the formal gardens. This picture will probably remind 'The Sound
Of Music' aficionados of Liesl and Rolf's duet 'Sixteen Going
On Seventeen'.
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The formal flower beds are looking particularly colourful in
the early September sunshine as this closer view shows. Old photographs
of the park show the flower beds to be bordered by small hedges.
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Also overlooking the formal gardens and the flower beds like
the bandstand, is one of the largest trees in the park - a mighty
oak. The tree was planted when the Duke of Rutland opened the
park over a hundred years ago on 28 August 1902.
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But despite the summery appearance of the park in most of these
images, there are reminders everywhere that the seasons are about
to change. Acorns and fallen leaves from the oak nestle in the
grass; conkers on the horse-chestnut tree will soon be harvested
by eager youngsters and beneath some of the shrubs in the borders,
the conditions are proving ideal for fungi. Autumn fruits are
signalling the end of summer.
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