Hove in the Past: Stoneham Park, Hove

Judy Middleton 2003 (revised 2018)

Duke of Portland (1857-1943)

William John Arthur Charles James Cavendish-Bentinck embarked on a military career in his youth but it was cut short when he succeeded to the dukedom in 1879. In 1883 the Duke of Portland was recorded as one of 28 noblemen who owned more than 100,000 acres in Britain. But the Duke of Portland actually owned 118,000 acres in Scotland, and 65,000 acres in England, being worth £85,000 a year.

On 11 June 1889 the Duke of Portland married Winifred Anna Dallas-York, formerly Mistress of the Robes to the Queen. The couple went on to have two sons and a daughter. It is not surprising that they lived in considerable state in Welbeck Abbey, which resembled a principality more than anything else because in 1900 some 320 staff were employed there, including fourteen house-maids plus 38 other male and female servants for the kitchen and other domestic duties. The chief steward was the kingpin of the domestic staff, and his status was so high and his responsibilities so onerous that he had his own footman to wait on him at table in the steward’s dining room where the ten most senior servants (known as the Upper Ten) joined him for meals.

In 1902 the Duchess of Portland was immortalised by the celebrated society artist John Singer Sargeant (1856-1925). In the portrait she wears a white satin low-cut dress with strings of pearls looped upon her bodice, a curious Elizabethan-style high lace ruff, and a deep red satin coat draped around her shoulders.

There is a picturesque anecdote about the duke and duchess dating from the 1930s. One evening the duke was chatting to his wife as she was getting ready to attend a ball. Deep in conversation he sat down on a chair without realising it was already occupied. He soon jumped up because he had landed on top of his wife’s large diamond tiara and impaled himself upon its platinum spikes. The duchess was quite unperturbed, either by her husband’s painful situation, or her broken tiara. She said, ‘Never mind, I’ll wear the other one.’

The Duke of Portland was Master of the Horse to Queen Victoria – an appropriate role because he loved horses and was a devotee of horse racing. Indeed, The Times described him as ‘a prominent figure of the Turf’. One of his greatest racehorses was St Simon, which he purchased for 1,600 guineas. This horse won the Ascot Gold Cup and the Goodwood Cup in 1884 and sired notable horses such as Persimmon and Diamond Jubilee that won the Derby for the Prince of Wales.

The Duke of Portland’s connection with Hove came about by default. This was because he lent money to land speculators who came to grief, and the duke foreclosed on the mortgages involved. The Ingram family put the Aldrington Estate on the market in the 1860s but there were no takers. It was not until 1876 that some men came forward to make a purchase – they were Vere Fane Bennet Stanford, George Gallard, William John Williams, Joseph Harris Stretton, and later Evan Vaughan. Gallard and Vaughan went bankrupt and Williams found himself in arrears. The duke had lent Williams sums of £20,000 and £10,000, and when no payments were forthcoming, he foreclosed. Whatever arrangements the duke made with Stretton, it soon became apparent the duke was acting on his own behalf with regard to the Aldrington land, which stretched from the Old Shoreham Road to Kingsway, including Wish Meadow and part of what became Hove Cemetery. The duke’s interest is clear because the names of some roads had a resonance for him such as Welbeck Road, Woodhouse Road, Mansfield Road, and of course Portland Road and Portland Avenue.

In August 1906 the Duke of Portland offered as a gift to the people of Hove for ever as an open space, a piece of land abutting Tamworth Road and Marmion Road consisting of 1.75 acres (0.7 hectares).

In 1914 the Duke and Duchess of Portland celebrated their Silver Wedding by the donation of three recreation grounds – one in Kirkby-in-Ashfield, one in Mansfield, and the other in Mansfield Woodhouse.

Stoneham

There has been some debate about where the name ‘Stoneham’ for the open space originates. The most attractive theory is that it was because the area was once in use as a gravel pit, but later became a convenient site where Mr Mainstone kept his pigs – thus a combination of ‘stone’ and ‘ham’. Delightful. Mr Mainstone was the Duke of Portland’s bailiff, and the duke particularly asked that Mainstone Road should be named in his honour and because the bailiff occupied a cottage there with his family that was once surrounded by fields.

Unfortunately for this theory, the word ‘Stoneham’ was already in use in the area. The Stoneham Estate dated from the 1880s, and included land on which Lennox Road, Kendal Road, Ruskin Road Stoneham Road, Payne Avenue, Tamworth Road, and part of Mortimer Road were built. Crucially, one of the mortgagees was William Stoneham of Fenchurch Street, London.

Development

Although the Duke of Portland gifted the land in 1906, Hove Council was in no hurry to consolidate on this kind donation. The reason, as ever, was lack of money. Indeed, it was not until 1913 that the space was officially opened.

In November 1909 it was decided that 38 elm trees should be planted on the east, west, and south sides at a cost of £10. In June 1911 it was stated that wrought-iron hurdle fencing would be erected, together with three gates.

In November 1912 the council decided a brick wall should be built on the north side to replace the wooden fence, and a new iron fence should be installed on the west side to replace the old iron fence at a cost of £185. In 1913 six seats were provided and they cost £3 each.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
An extract from a report in the Brighton Herald on the opening
of Portland Road Recreation Ground (Stoneham Park) in 1913

At first it was called Portland Road Recreation Ground, later it became Stoneham Recreation Ground, and today it is Stoneham Park. It was opened on 1^st October 1913.

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
A 1915 postcard showing soldiers from the 6th Cyclist Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment on parade practice in Stoneham Park. In the bottom left of the image is, 'WE ARE OFF - FOLLOW ON'
(in the background is the spire of St Barnabas Church in Sackville Road)

Labour Party Meetings

In July 1919 Hove Council granted permission to the Portland Ward Association of Brighton & Hove Labour Party to hold meetings at Stoneham on Saturday evenings in the summer and autumn. But they must not hold more than two meetings in a month.

In 1920 the meetings were held on alternate Mondays at 7.30 p.m. from 12 July to 20 September.

Improvements

In 1923 a sheltered seat costing £40 was erected on the north side.

In May 1925 Hove Council decided to erect a lavatory for children, built of brick with a red tile roof. In order for it to blend in with its surroundings, it was to be covered outside by rustic woodwork. It was to be situated on the west side, 75 feet north from Marmion Road. The following month Parsons & Sons agreed to erect the building for £173.

The Gun

copyright © Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove
Photograph from the Brighton Graphic entitled 'The German gun while at Preston Park Barracks, Brighton'

In 1920 the Royal Sussex Regiment presented the town of Hove with a captured German gun, which was put on display in the Stoneham ground and surrounded by fencing.

By 1928 some Hove councillors were becoming fed up with the sight of the gun. They disliked such a grim war relic being continuously on display in front of children. Besides, the gun’s condition was deteriorating, while the fence around it needed repair. Other councillors disagreed vehemently, stating that to throw it out would be an insult to the Royal Sussex Regiment.

It is interesting to note that there were other relics from the First World War including a gun at Hove Battery on the seafront, and a tank in Hove Park. Just think how valuable these relics would be today! But the Great War was supposed to be the war that ended all wars, and so such souvenirs were chucked out.

Recent Times

In 1982 an Improvement Fund was set up to give Stoneham Park a face-lift. Within three years some £2,800 was raised or given, and there were plans to purchase new equipment.

In November 1985 children from Aldrington Infants’ School and West Hove Junior School helped to plant bulbs in the park.

In May 1989 the Mayor of Hove, Councillor Margaret Adams, opened a children’s play-base at Stoneham Park that had two rooms plus a kitchen. It was situated in a former electricity sub-station built in 1925.

By 1994 there were two football areas plus some play equipment for children with rubberised mats underneath for safety purposes that looked like asphalt from a distance. Although some of the original trees remained, the park was remarkable for its lack of grass.

In August 1995 it was reported that the park was plagued by an army of pigeons, and parents were reluctant to take their children to the park because the ground was covered with bird droppings. The pigeons had been attracted by people feeding them while visiting the play area. Hove Council put up notices asking people not to feed the birds there.

In December 1996 it was revealed that, as part of planning gain, the Pavilion and Avenue Lawn Tennis Club had offered to donate £40,000 to pay for a sport’s area in Stoneham Park. In return sixteen houses would be built on the site of their old courts on the south side of Wilbury Avenue, while the club created a brand new establishment at The Droveway. This offer was not confirmed until October 1998.

By 1999 it was unfortunate that Stoneham Park had become a hot-spot for drug abusers. In July 1999 local residents and workers from the YMCA in Marmion Road were working to improve the situation. However, when the council removed old play-equipment such as the see-saw, and a mini-slide, concerned residents feared the drug-users would return. The council promised to spend £6,000 on new equipment.

In February 2000 there was a consultation exercise with local residents to ascertain what improvements they would like to see. They came up with the following:

Installing a rubber surface around play equipment

Reducing the amount of tarmac

Getting rid of a rusty climbing frame

Removing the basketball court to the other side, near the Marmion Road gate

Keeping dogs out of the park

Discouraging drug users

In March 2001 Hove YMCA came up with an idea called the Park Safe Project. This would entail three volunteers patrolling the park from 4.30. p.m. to 7 p.m. during the spring and summer so that children might play in safety without parents worrying about truculent teenagers, drug users, and drug dealers.

Meanwhile, the ‘Our Park’ appeal launched by the Poets’ Corner Residents’Association had managed to raise some £5,000, which was added to the £46,000 already earmarked by Brighton & Hove City Council.

On 26 May 2001 Councillor Harry Steer, Mayor of Brighton & Hove, officially re-opened Stoneham Park. The area now boasted new play equipment in the form of a climbing frame, monkey bars, two sets of swings and a triple slide. There was a grassed area, and landscaping work had been carried out with hedges being cut back being one example.

The project turned out to be a huge success and was much appreciated by parents. It seems that when drug dealers endeavoured to return to their old haunts, determined parents chased them out again.

In the spring of 2000 daffodil and crocus bulbs were planted.

In 2013 the centenary of Stoneham Park was celebrated with gusto.

In 2018 the park is thriving, and lively murals enhance the surroundings. The play area for young children, now including a sand-pit, has secure metal fencing closing it off from the rest of the park. The grassed area is quiet and green with mature trees shadowing it. The stumps of those trees that needed to be felled have been kept in situ and levelled to serve as stools or tables. The cafe – now called The Hive – has been re-opened and is doing well plus, great relief all round, there are public toilets.

Sources

Dictionary of National Biography

Middleton J, Encyclopaedia of Hove and Portslade

Evening Argus

Hove Council Minute Books
National Library of Australia

Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove

The Keep

AMS 5976 – Deeds relating to 24 Stoneham Road 1880-1966

10 November 2018

Stoneham Park, Hove