Christchurch Park is a 70 acres (283,280.2 m²) area of rolling lawns, wooded areas, and delicately created arboreta

Arboretum

An arboretum in a narrow sense is a collection of trees only. Related collections include a fruticetum , and a viticetum, a collection of vines. More commonly, today, an arboretum is a botanical garden containing living collections of woody plants intended at least partly for scientific study...

 in central Ipswich

Ipswich

Ipswich is a large town and a non-metropolitan district. It is the county town of Suffolk, England. Ipswich is located on the estuary of the River Orwell...

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, 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...

. It contains Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house within Christchurch Park on the edge of the town centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, England...

 which holds a public museum and art gallery. The park opened as the town's first public park in 1895.

History

From the 12th century the park was the site of the Augustinian Priory of the Holy Trinity. In 1536 the Priory's estates were seized by the crown during Henry VIII

Henry VIII of England

Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...

's Dissolution of the Monasteries

Dissolution of the Monasteries

The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...

. The land was purchased by a London merchant, Paul Withipoll in 1545, and between 1548 and 1550 his son Edmund had the priory demolished and built Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion

Christchurch Mansion is a substantial Tudor brick mansion house within Christchurch Park on the edge of the town centre of Ipswich, Suffolk, England...

 in its place. The Mansion remains the impressive Tudor centrepiece of the park and contains a museum, art gallery and tea room.

Apart from a small disused lion's head water fountain provided for the poor of Ipswich by the Augustinians, there is no trace left of the priory buildings, although the Round Pond and Wilderness Pond in the park are thought to have originally stocked fish for the monks. St Margaret's Church, which was built by the monks in the 13th century and which served as church and burial place to the lords of the Manor, is also still standing in a corner of the park on St Margaret's Plain.
During the 1560s there was an ongoing dispute with the Ipswich Corporation

Ipswich Corporation

The Ipswich Corporation was a municipal corporation that owned property and government to town. The corporation kept highly details accounts of their operation, a great deal of which survives to this day...

 in relation to various alterations carried out and public access to the annual fair. In 1567 Edmund Withypoll constructed a new pond, now known as the 'Wilderness Pond'. Queen Elizabeth I was stayed at the mansion for six days during August 1561. She returned to the town for four days in 1575.

Edmunds's granddaughter Elizabeth Withipoll married Leicester Devereux, 6th Viscount Hereford

Leicester Devereux, 6th Viscount Hereford

Leicester Devereux, 6th Viscount Hereford was a British Peer. He was the second son of Walter Devereux, 5th Viscount Hereford ....

 and the mansion passed to the Devereux family, who rebuilt the upper floors after a fire in about 1670, when the main porch was also added. Claude Fonnereau bought the Christchurch estate in 1734 which at the time totaled more than 114 acre (0.46134204 km²) of land (today's park covers about 82 acres). By 1772 the public were granted some access to the park and tried to introduce keys for those who would sign an agreement with conditions of entry.

Following efforts by the Ipswich Corporation to find land for a public park in 1848 W.C. Fonnereau leased 13 acres (52,609.2 m²) to the corporation from 1851 who developed the arboretum in the same year that the park wa visited by Prince Albert

Prince Albert

Prince Albert was the husband and consort of Queen Victoria.Prince Albert may also refer to:-Royalty:*Prince Albert Edward or Edward VII of the United Kingdom , son of Albert and Victoria...

. By 1895 the mansion was owned by Felix Cobbold

Felix Cobbold

Felix Thornley Cobbold was a British barrister and Liberal Party politician.Cobbold was the son of John Cobbold, Member of Parliament for Ipswich, and his wife Lucy, daughter of Reverend Henry Patterson. John Cobbold, Thomas Cobbold and Nathaniel Cobbold, grandfather of Cameron Cobbold, 1st Baron...

 who offered to give it to the corporation on condition that the corporation purchased the rest of the grounds. A deal was concluded and the park opened to the public on 11 April 1895.

The park contains memorials to the Ipswich Martyrs

Ipswich Martyrs

The Ipswich Martyrs were nine people burnt at the stake for their Protestant beliefs around 1538-1558. The executions were mainly carried out in the centre of Ipswich, Suffolk on The Cornhill, the square in front of Ipswich Town Hall. At that time the remains of the medieval church of St Mildred...

 which was installed in 1903. The war memorial to servicemen lost during the Boer War

Boer War

The Boer Wars were two wars fought between the British Empire and the two independent Boer republics, the Oranje Vrijstaat and the Republiek van Transvaal ....

, World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 was moved to the park from cornhill in 1924. The corporation acquire the upper arboretum in 1928.

The Great Storm of 1987

Great Storm of 1987

The Great Storm of 1987 occurred on the night of 15/16 October 1987, when an unusually strong weather system caused winds to hit much of southern England and northern France...

 which affected most parts of the United Kingdom had drastic effects on the park, destroying around 230 trees including the last remaining elm

Elm

Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus Ulmus in the plant family Ulmaceae. The dozens of species are found in temperate and tropical-montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ranging southward into Indonesia. Elms are components of many kinds of natural forests...

.

In 2004, the park received a £4.2 million grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund

Heritage Lottery Fund

The Heritage Lottery Fund is a fund established in the United Kingdom under the National Lottery etc. Act 1993. The Fund opened for applications in 1994. It uses money raised through the National Lottery to transform and sustain the UK’s heritage...

 for a programme of extensive renovation and restoration of its facilities and historical features. This renovation includes the 2006 draining of both the 'round' and 'wilderness' ponds in order to remove the five foot of silt

Silt

Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...

 that has collected over the past 80 years.

Wildlife and ornithology

Christchurch Park is home to in excess of 100 different bird varieties, including a large selection of ducks, geese and swans which inhabit the two large ponds situated within the park. A large bird reserve was set up in the early 1990s, and dog-walkers are restricted to keeping their pets on a lead within this area to reduce disturbances to the birds. Alongside the birds of the park, many squirrels inhabit the arboreta.

Sport and leisure within the park

Sporting facilities within the park include tennis courts, a croquet lawn and a bowling green. Christchurch Park has also long been the centre of many of Ipswich's leisure and entertainment events. The Ipswich Carnival, a giant fireworks display, The Ipswich Flower Show and The Ipswich Music Festival are all held here, along with concerts from bands such as McFly, Busted, Diversity (Britain's Got Talent), Jedward, Jools Holland

Jools Holland

Julian Miles "Jools" Holland OBE, DL is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer, and television presenter. He was a founder of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, The Who, David Gilmour and Bono.Holland is a...

 and Status Quo. Every summer, a "Proms in the Park" event is also held together with a screening of a popular film in the park's 'bowl', Snow Hill, prompting al fresco patriotism. An annual parade of historic vehicles also assembles along the spinal path of the park, and marks the start of the Ipswich to Felixstowe Run

Ipswich to Felixstowe Run

The Ipswich to Felixstowe Run is an annual event in the English county of Suffolk. Up to 500 vehicles can participate in the event, which starts in Christchurch Park, Ipswich. The vehicles then make a journey to the promenade of Felixstowe, where they line up and remain for a large part of the...

.