Dartmouth Park fountain. Photo: Friends of Dartmouth Park

By Dave Woodhall.

I used to spend loads of time at Dartmouth Park in West Bromwich.

Sometimes there was a few of us and we’d be playing the usual football in the winter/cricket in summer (except when there was a World Cup on)/tennis for a fortnight during Wimbledon that every gang of young lads used to do in that halcyon period between being allowed out further than your mum could see and discovering girls. At other times I’d go up there on my own; it seemed massive and there was loads to discover. Apart from the grass that seemed to go on forever there was a boating lake, bowling greens, paddling pools (far too childish by then), a cafe, real cricket pitches and on the King George playing fields the nearest thing to a proper golf course we were ever going to be let loose on.

Most impressive of all was the broad avenue leading from the park gates, past the War Memorial and down towards the lake. It was wide, straight, and on either side there were the most immaculate flower beds I’d ever seen. The Parkie would go mental if you so much as looked at them. My mum always tells me about how West Brom, before the war, was a much better-off place than it later became and looking back Dartmouth Park in the seventies was the last vestige of that civic pride

Last time I went to the park it was a bit of a sad place. Boats, the cricket pitches, cafe, bowling green and all the rest had gone, nobody seemed to be doing much except walking dogs but the avenue was still there, as impressive as I remembered it. The flowerbeds weren’t as well kept but they were nice enough and amazingly untouched by vandals. Maybe they’re protected by the benevolent force of the Ghosts of Parkies Past.

I was therefore glad to read yesterday that the park has been renovated in a project funded by lottery grants and Sandwell Council. Among the improvements is a replica of the original drinking fountain that stood in the park in 1883, there are also new lighting columns and uplighters to the War Memorial as well as improvements to the entrance and boundary walls. Dartmouth Park’s back on the up and I hope it’s used by many more generations of young kids winning the World Cup, the Ashes, Wimbledon and the British Open all in the same summer holidays.

See the Friends of Dartmouth Park website for more information