James Thomson
Derby Arboretum
The first public park in England.
Our parks are part of everyday life; they are a place with no other purpose but enjoyment. They are places to walk, play and meet. They are places to sit and think. For most of our history, however, there has been no such thing as a public park. If you owned enough land you might be able to enjoy a walk in your private grounds, but for most people these places were prohibited. In 1840, that changed, and the Arboretum Park near Osmaston Road was created and donated to the working people of Derby by the Strutt family. For the first time, anyone, regardless of wealth or power, could 'go to the park'. This idea was so good that it spread across the country and across the world; thousands of other parks have been created but the first was here, in Derby.
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