Victoria Park and Bridgwater History

Victoria Park is located within the Newtown area of Bridgwater and covers an area of three hectares. The park itself was built in 1928 and consists mainly of open grass areas, which are surrounded by mature and semi mature trees.

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Interesting facts:
Bridgwater was declared as a county town in its own right by Henry Vlll and was the first town to petition Parliament for the abolition of slavery.

Victoria Road was originally known as Malt Shovel Lane and Victoria Park as Malt Shovel Park. In fact, the Malt Shovel Inn still resides in the Victoria area. May be, in those days, one may have seen the very first motorised town taxi as Bridgwater Motor Company launched the very first town taxi service in 1909.

Though the park was only built in 1928 the bowling club has been going since the 1930’s.

The first time that anyone aged as young as 18 was allowed to vote was at a Bridgwater bye-election when Tom King was elected for the first time.
Bridgwater once had four cinemas operating at the same time; the Odeon and the Palace in Penel Orlieu, the Arcade in Eastover (later known as the Rex) and a regular cinema in the Town Hall. And the district council was set up in 1974.

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Other Victoria Park Facilities in Bridgwater

A part from our modern community centre, medical centre, children’s centre and pharmacy Victoria Park has other facilities and things to do.

A fenced play area for toddlers and juniors is situated in the south of the park, which is inspected on a weekly basis by the Parks Department.

The Park also incorporates Victoria Park Bowling club, who lease the land from Sedgemoor District Council to provide Bowling and Tennis Facilities to members with limited access to members of the general public.

The Football Pitch and changing facilities are available for hire from Clean Surroundings for a nominal fee.

 

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