Lyddeker Park

Information Boards and Memorial Plaques

Approaching from Sun Lane. Credit: John Marlow

During the summer of 2017 the Town Council erected two new information boards in the Park, following consultation with a Lyddeker family relative and the Local History Society.

One is sited alongside the circle of flowers, shrubs and seats in the centre of the Park and is clearly visible when walking in from the Sun Lane entrance. It describes how the Park was opened in 1998 “to provide peace and tranquillity and a unique area for everyone to enjoy”, and how “the land was formerly part of the grounds of Harpenden Lodge, built in 1803”. The board features a large map of the site and lists the trees that are “subject to a tree preservation order, including some species of oak, lime, Norway spruce and black pine”.

In the central circle there is also a stone Dedication pillar erected when the Park was opened, which reads “This Open Space was given to the people of Harpenden by Miss Hilda Lyddeker in memory of her loved ones lost during the Great War 1914 – 1918”.

Also in the circle is a board erected in 2014 on the centenary of the start of the Great War, featuring the poem “In Flanders Fields” by Major John McCrae written in May 1915 – http://www.greatwar.co.uk/poems/john-mccrae-in-flanders-fields.htm: 

Alongside the bridge over the pond near the Luton Road entrance to the Park a new information board gives details of the wildlife to look out for here: toads, frogs, dragonflies damselflies and their nymphs, backswimmers, pond skaters and smooth newts, water scorpion, water boatmen, and mallards and moorhen.

The Town Council continues to keep this space one that is “a unique area for everyone to enjoy” and the Local History Society is pleased that they asked us for input for the new board.

 

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