| Title: | Greenhead Park, Huddersfield, UK |
| Markets: | Parks and Green Spaces |
| Client: | Kirklees MBC |
| Services: | Landscape architecture |
| Region: | United Kingdom |
| Date: | 2011 |
Gillespies has sensitively restored the grade II list Greenhead Park, Huddersfield's most significant heritage park that originally opened in 1884. The extensive £3.5m restoration was funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund and involved the restoration of the main lake and the war memorial together with the refurbishment of the pavilion buildings to create contemporary visitor facilities.
Gillespies was commissioned by Kirklees Council to support their Stage 2 application to the Heritage Lottery Fund and subsequently re-appointed to implement the restoration proposals for the park. Extensive community consultation and stakeholder engagement played a vital role in securing the funding for this ambitious project.
The completion of the park's restoration marks 127 years of the park's history. Works included the sensitive restoration of several of the Victorian park's distinctive structures including a lodge, an ornate glasshouse, bandstand, a lakeside arbour, gate pillars and fountains, within a largely complete historic layout. All of these features were restored as part of the Gillespies designed restoration masterplan.
The Victorian conservatory was saved from dereliction and restored. Gillespies designed a contemporary extension to the structure, providing a new café that allows people to “spill out” into the sheltered glass house environment.
The landscape restoration focused on recreating lost elements, such as the main boating lake, fountains, Victorian planting and bespoke metal work that had been lost over the decades. New areas of contemporary landscape design were sensitively integrated into the heritage landscape.
Gillespies' approach to the planting saw new areas of planting introduced within the park to re-establish the intended spaces and vistas of the original design. This reinstates important design features such as the main avenue where historically authentic specimen woodland trees and shrub species have been reintroduced.
Further to the appointment of a Main Contractor in June 2009, Gillespies role was to as contract administrators for the implementation of the works using the JCT Constructing Excellence form of contract, which was completed in Spring 2011.
