This park isn’t really along the road to Oxford, not in any purposeful way. But it is within the City of Bath, where I am enjoying a couple of days with my daughter in law, Georgina, and my granddaughter, Josie.
Georgie took me here yesterday for a bit of a stroll as I acclimate to the time difference, and in honor of the first day of Summer. The air was fresh and filled with birdsong, which was perfect.
The park is 57 acres of mixed usage, designed by Edward Davis in 1830, and paid for by the wealthy landowners of Bath in the hope that it would provide tourists with another attraction to keep them, and their pounds sterling, coming to town; this, as the popularity of the ancient Roman baths seemed to be losing some of their popularity. The park was opened by Queen Victoria herself when she was only 11 years old and the ceremony was apparently grand and well promoted.
This is the Great Dell
which is a lovely area along the hillside with a remote, somewhat wild feel to it.
This is the “aerial walkway” of the Great Dell, which was designed to make the trail more accessible while utilizing a steep hillside which was overgrown.
Unfortunately,
it isn’t completed yet so folks with limited mobility are not able to experience the peace this section of the park offers from the walkway as intended. Sadly, I couldn’t find any reference to a date for planned completion.
However,
Jupiter’s Head is on the bottom land of the Dell and can be looked up to by one and all. This statue was designed by John Osborne and curiously, was already in its current place when the park designer presented his plan to the city Father’s for approval and funding, suggesting a bit of behind the scenes wheeling and dealing.
I have no idea why Jupiter and it doesn’t say. Perhaps Mr. Osborne felt a kinship which he needed to fully express. It’s an imposing visage, looking down at you, regardless.
Looking across the park one can see such a lovely view as this
and there is a small chapel available for weddings, for those so inclined.
Georgie told me some fun stories of having worked in the children’s park while a teenager. There used to be a carnival type attraction and she found it not only a place to make some money, but a place to make some interesting friends.
Nowadays, there is a climbing structure 
of rather grand proportions
and a skater’s hill,.
something I imagine the 11 year old Victoria would have looked longingly upon.
The park is an oasis of green and colorful entertainment in the midst of the sameness of the monotone beige surround which, upon closer inspection, becomes building after building of that locally quarried “Bathstone”,which is actually Oolitic limestone, from the Paleolithic area, known for its honey color.
Beautiful historic buildings to be sure (it’s a genuinely lovely city), but overwhelmingly beige. Golden beige, darker beige, brownish beige. Beige. With laws and fines in place to keep it historically so.
The beige City of Bath (with a few rosy rooftops)