A Walk in the Park

New Year's Day got off to a lazy start. I lay in bed until just gone 9am, finishing Philippa Gregory's The Virgin's Lover, a book I'd started the previous week. After a late breakfast of vegetarian sausage sandwiches, we pulled on our boots and headed to Palfrey Park, a fifteen-minute walk away, the first park of the twenty-five in the borough of Walsall to be awarded a prestigious Green Flag Award. 

Formerly known as St George's Recreation Ground, Palfrey Park was established in 1886 and, after a local newspaper campaign for the addition of bandstands in several of Walsall's public parks, the council commissioned George Smith & Sons of the Sun Foundry, Glasgow to build three for a combined cost of £90. The bandstand, erected in 1890, soon became a popular fixture with concerts being performed regularly however, the demand for live events had waned by 1948 and the bandstand was removed. 

Palfrey Park underwent a regeneration programme in 2000 and heritage and lottery funding paid for a reproduction to be built. The colours used replicated Walsall's 16th Century Coat of Arms.

The other languages on the sign are Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Bengali and Gujarati - Walsall has a large South Asian population

 

 A rural settlement until the mid-1800s, the name Palfrey is derived from the Latin Paraveredus, meaning a well-bred, light horse and is so-called as horses were kept here. In 2005, John McKenna, a renowned sculptor, was commissioned to design and fabricate the structure of the Palfrey Horse, made using small sections of locally produced stainless steel.

He's a handsome beast, isn't he?

As you can see from the photos, Lord Jon & I had the park almost to ourselves. We did spot one of the local characters, a bearded chap dressed entirely in black who walks around the town with a tame crow on his shoulder.

New Year's Day was the mildest since records began, with temperatures hovering at around 15°C. I'm not sure why I opted to wear a wool hat and gloves, I was glowing by the time I got home!

It had been almost a year since we last visited and these carved animals, flanking the entrance of the wildlife area, were a new addition.

With the cobwebs blown away, we headed for home, passing the bustling Guru Nanak gurdwara at the bottom of our road. 

I'd remembered another 25 bulbs I had stashed away and popped them into the garden alongside the 175 we'd planted on New Year's Eve. After a blog catch-up, we watched King of Thieves, a 2018 film based on the true story of the Hatton Garden diamond heist, and had a New Year's (artisan) beer with Tony, who called round after work - he only had Xmas Day off, the joys of working in retail.

Using some of our home-grown parsnips Jon had harvested the previous day, I (yes, me!) made a honey-mustard potato bake (recipe HERE) which we ate with sprouts, pan-fried in butter and sprinkled with vegan bacon bits.

Later we cracked open one of our Xmas bottles of rum and started watching Deep State, a spy series starring the brilliant Mark Strong. 

Our 2022 got off to a good start, I hope it did for you, too!