9 members gathered at the fountain fronting the Art Gallery at 10.30 am to be met by our affable guide Geoff Watts, someone who had been a speaker at one of our monthly meetings.
Starting by crossing the road into West Marlands park Geoff explained that all the central parks were originally known as Lammas parks which were privately owned and cultivated but had to be open to the public for 6 months of the year. He then went on to explain about the 2 modern art installations there, one of which is still on loan after 25 years. I think that nobody wanted it back so Southampton is stuck with it!
Progressing east to the statue of Isaac Watts (no relation, Geoff assured us) it’s origin and its particular siting was explained to us. Watts was the composer of various hymns including “oh God our help in ages past” which is played daily each 4 hours from 8am to 8pm from the Civic Centre bell tower.
From there it was to the Cenotaph, designed by Lutyens, which commemorates those who died in The Great War and shows 2000 names - one of which appears twice as it was incorrectly spelled originally. Those who died in WW2 have their names in a book held in the main library archives which can be viewed if requested.
Proceeding across Above Bar we made our way to the Titanic Engineer’s Memorial erected in memorium to those engineers who went down with the ship whilst endeavouring to keep all lights blazing so that the Carpathian would see it should it arrive in time. The architect of the Titanic - Thomas Andrews - also perished with them after he had warned the captain that the vessel was doomed.
We were then reminded of the very popular aviary which stood nearby but disappeared overnight on the instructions of a city counsellor causing a public outcry but to no avail. There appears to be no record of the fate of the birds housed therein.
We then moved over to another installation called The Queen’s fountain to celebrate 56 years of QE2’s reign without a war. The actual fountain no longer operates due to vandalism.
Continuing to the pergola our attention was drawn to a - now defunct - sundial erected to mark the beginning of the reign of Edward VII.
Perambulating through the parks via the avenue of lime trees we crossed New Road into what is called Palmerston park with our guide drawing attention to various areas of historical interest along the way which we would have missed otherwise. We then gathered before Palmerston’s statue set in the most densely planted area of the park - courtesy of a Victorian benefactor who owned a garden centre and donated £4000 worth of shrubs and other flora.
Palmerston was a burgess of the town who became a Liberal MP and progressed to positions of Foreign and Home Secretaries and Prime Minister twice, dying in office in 1865.
Onwards we went along the avenue and crossed over Pound Tree Round and intoQueens Park passing a children’s playground which was being refurbished or upgraded until, finally, we reached the plinth and column monument which was raised through public subscription commemorating the arrival of gas lighting to the town.
Many thanks to Geoff for his deep knowledge and interesting words throughout and to Christine for making the walk possible. We all learned a great deal. It is hoped to organise a further historical walk sometime soon.
I’ve bored you long enough with my ramblings so time to close. Ken.
