Allesley Park is a park near Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

, West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

.

History

The park was originally a deer park

Medieval deer park

A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...

 laid out by Henry de Hastings in the 13th century. It was approximately 5 times larger than the current park. It was later used as a large gentleman's farm

Gentleman's farm

A gentleman's farm is an extremely small or non-operative farm. They are generally small acreages that are not used to produce large amounts of food, grain, or livestock for major markets. Gentleman's farms are also used as hobby farms, for horse rearing, or as bed and breakfast establishments...

 of more than 400 acres (1.6 km²) which was owned by the church. In the 1960s, it was bought by Coventry City Council when it was preserved as a public park.

Allesley Hall

The original hall, built in the mid-17th century, was purchased by Thomas Wyles and was established as Allesley Park College.

The present Allesley Hall is a mansion built in 1909 for the Iliffe family

Baron Iliffe

Baron Iliffe, of Yattendon in the County of Berkshire, is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1933 for the newspaper magnate Sir Edward Iliffe...

. It is now used as a retirement home

Retirement home

A retirement home is a multi-residence housing facility intended for senior citizens. Typically each person or couple in the home has an apartment-style room or suite of rooms. Additional facilities are provided within the building, including facilities for meals, gathering, recreation, and some...

, but was a sanatorium

Sanatorium

A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...

during the 1950s.