Tremendous-trees.co.uk
Hellingly Country Park
trees, shrubs and all stuff green!
A Tangled Hop
... not just a list of trees and not just the country park.
Trees have a history, they have uses and many are also bound up in our human history and folklore. Some of our trees were planted as part of the hospital grounds in 1903, some will be later additions and some have arrived naturally following the closure of the hospital in 1994. A few have been planted more recently such as the Tulip tree and of course the freshly created community orchard.
Regardless of what, when or why. I intend this site to be a record not just of the trees and other plants in the park but elsewhere around the village too. A delve into their history, uses and legend.
It may well end up a bit of a tangled affair. As tangled and as convoluted as the hops that grow in the hedges around our village.
Asylum, soldiers and cricket.
The East Sussex County Asylum was built on land which was formerly part of Park Farm. The four hundred acres of land were purchased for the sum of £16,000. Construction of the hospital commenced in 1898 with the brand new hospital opening in 1903 having cost the County authority over £350,000. The building was designed by George Thomas Hine who designed many asylum hospitals around the country on behalf of the Commissioners in Lunacy.
The newly constructed hospital complex was as extensive as it was impressive. Being largely self sufficient it not only included the necessary single sex wards but a children's unit and infectious diseases isolation hospital. Needless to say that there were administration blocks, staff quarters, workshops and kitchens, not to forget the boiler house, chapel, farm and electric light railway. The hospital also formed its own Local Defence Volunteers. A marble plaque and later tablet remembers those members of staff that fell during both World Wars.
The grounds were built by renown Victorian naturalist and landscape architect William Goldring. Goldring went on to become president of the Royal Botanic gardens at Kew. He worked on many notable projects at home , Europe and Empire. Hatfield House, Phoenix Park and Laxmi Palace, India to name just a few.
Hailsham, Hellingly and surrounding areas became home to many Canadian troops in the build up to D-Day, June 1944. Canadian troops took up residence in Park House as well as a tented camp in and around the hospital grounds and Park Wood.
The park fell into disrepair after the hospital closure in 1994. Not until Roebuck Park housing development became a thing did the construction company Persimmon undertake work to re-establish the park that we know today. The centre piece being the cricket field, currently home to Hailsham Cricket Club.
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