Victorian splendour returns to South Marine Park

Feb 27 2009 by Tony Henderson, The Journal

THE band played and people danced yesterday at an open air celebration of the completion of a Victorian landmark park’s £5m restoration.

Crowds gather for the 'Bonny Baby' contest in South Marine Park, South Shields, in 1935

Creating the rockery and digging out the drain for the waterfall in South Marine Park, South Shields, in 1931

The lake in South Marine Park, South Shields, in 1900

The Borough Police Force who kept order during the opening ceremony of South Marine Park, South Shields, in 1890

A washerwoman's cottage that had to be cleared away by John Peebles' workforce before starting to lanscape South Marine Park, South Shields

George Whitson, 81, dressed as a Victorian gent to celebrate the reopening of Marine Park in South Shields.

Promenading in Marine Park South Shields. From left John Laws, Lynne Knight, George Whitson and Margaret Thompson

Ian Yarrow and Maureen Young dance to the Westoe band

George Whitson at Marine Park South Shields

Westoe band

George Whitson, 81, dressed as a Victorian gent to celebrate the reopening of Marine Park in South Shields.

Marine Park in South Shields

And a plea was made for recognition for the forgotten toiler who did so much to fashion South Marine Park on the South Shields seafront.

John Peebles was appointed gardener/park keeper in July 1886, and was handed the huge task of creating the park from land which had to be cleared of a “moonscape” of spoil heaps from a glass works.

Local historian David Bell, who has written a history of the park, is calling for a statue or plaque to Mr Peebles as the finishing touch to the park restoration, which was backed with £3.8m from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

John Peebles’s strenuous role in creating the park emerged from his hand-written journal which was discovered when fittings were being stripped out of the park keeper’s house.

“It was a wonderful start to the book project,” said former master mariner David, who lives near the park in Nelson Avenue.

“John Peebles was handed a mammoth task and had an enormous role in creating the park. He was a true servant of the people but he was never given sufficient credit. He was not even invited to the banquet to mark the opening of the park, which was a disgrace.”

Mr Peebles died, aged 52, in 1902 at his home in the park lodge, leaving a wife and four children, and is buried in Harton cemetery in South Shields. He had worn himself down and broken his health in the service of the people of South Shields,” said David.

“His life’s work, the realisation of the dream of South Marine park, carried out over long hours and in all weathers, had been too much for him.”

One of his first tasks had been to organise the digging of the park lake with two islands, which by November 1886 had been flooded to a depth of 18 inches and froze in the winter weather. He decided to open it for skating and sold 8,942 tickets.

“After a hard day’s work in freezing conditions, he stayed late into the winter evenings, tramping around the edge of his ‘rink’ selling tickets and humbly petitioned the council for a few gas lamps to assist him in collecting the money,” said David.

More than 800 horse-drawn cartloads of soil were brought into the park, thousands of trees and shrubs were planted as well as 28,000 bedding plants in time for the opening in 1890.

Yesterday the handover ceremony was marked by Westoe Brass Band being the first to play in the re-created bandstand, based on the 1904 original model.

They followed in the footsteps of Lieut Amers’s Military Band, who drew a crowd of 12,000 when they were the first to play in the original bandstand.

The Friends of North and South Marine Parks dressed in Victorian costume yesterday and children from Westoe Crown, Hadrian and Marine Park primary schools also joined in the celebrations.

A family fun day and light festival will take place on Saturday, April 18.