Shadbolt Park

This being a park in Worcester Park that turned up in the course of a recent Wellingtonia hunt, noticed, for example, at reference 1. Red splodge marks the spot. Further investigation at reference 2, revealed that Shadbolt House, now a GP surgery, was built, and the gardens, now a park was planted, by a retired railway engineer from India at the beginning of the twentieth century. One Ernest Shadbolt, who ended his time in India as Director of Railway Engineering for the Government of India, 1904-1906. Presumably a man who knew all about ballast, embankments, cuttings, tunnels and bridges rather than locomotives. Or perhaps he did both. In any event, an odd business spending your working life on the other side of the globe and then retiring to one's natal country. But then, staying on in somebody else's country would have been a bit odd too.

He was assisted by his niece, sometime Director and Head of the Crownprincely Children's Department, otherwise the governess of the Kaiser's two boys. Bureaucratic types these Germans.

And what is relevant here is that he was a keen planter of exotic trees and shrubs, many of which have survived in the present park.

A fine line of what turned out to be Monterey pines, running south along the western boundary, more or less from red splodge marks the spot. Still some life in the daffodills.

A tall coastal redwood. With some links to the real thing to be found at reference 5.

The bole of same. Plus some more of the garden; a sort of cross between municipal park and botanical garden.

The bole of a metasequoia. Which was the end of the sequoia story. No Wellingtonia.

The water feature.

The big house. Which suggests that Mr. Shadbolt was much more interested in his garden than playing my house is much bigger and better than your house.

A handsome Monterey cypress, with the recreation ground beyond. At least that is what the ticket said, even if it does not look much like any of the trees turned up by Bing. This despite the climate in Monterey not being that different to that here in the UK. I will check the needles on our next visit.

The other end of the line of Monterey pines.

All in all, a fine resource for Worcester Park, even if a bit far for ourselves to visit very often. Let's hope that they manage to keep it going.

Somewhere along the way we came across a large, rather stark house, in among some older, regular suburban houses. We though probably another express prefab from the Baufritz people. See reference 6.

PS: Rymill reports (on page 143) that the planting of the flower beds had to be changed when the council introduced a new, task based bonus scheme. The planting did not fit in with the new world. 

References

Reference 1: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/wellingtonia-72.html.

Reference 2: Worcester Park, Old Malden and North Cheam: History at our feet - David Rymill - 2012.

Reference 3: https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Ernest_Ifill_Shadbolt. From the Indian Biographical Dictionary of 1915 we have: 'Shadbolt, Ernest Ifill; Director of Railway Construction (retired); b. 1851; s. of late George Shadbolt; educ: privately; R.I.E. College, Cooper’s Hill; entered Indian Public Works Department, 1874; Assistant Engineer on construction of Idore, Dhond Manmad, Bopal State Railways, 1874-83; services lent to Bhavnagar and Gondal States, 1887-91; Executive Engineer on construction of Sind-Peshin, Kathiawar, East Coast State Railways, 1888-93; Engineer-in-Chief, Bezwada, Madras, Madura-Pamban, Tinnevelly-Quilon Railway Surveys, 1893-95; Engineer-in-chief, Indus Bridge Works, Kotri-Rohri Railway, 1895-1901; Senior Inspector of Railways, Madras, 1902-04; Director of Railway Construction, Government of India, 1904-06; retired from Indian Railway service, 1906. Recreations: Music, Cycling, Gardening. Address: Ardeley, Pirbright, Surrey'. 

Reference 4: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/2021/03/another-audley-end.html. Being earlier notice of R.I.E. Digging out notice of the Cooper's Hill connection to Edward Maufe is left as an exercise to readers.

Reference 5: https://psmv5.blogspot.com/2022/04/wellingtonia-75.html.

Reference 6: https://psmv4.blogspot.com/search?q=express+prefab.

Reference 7: http://mpga.org.uk/. There is, or at least was, a link with these people. But I can't find it.

Reference 8: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Indian_Engineering_College. As well as doing engineering, for a while they ran a first class rugby team.