University Park
University of Nottingham
University Park is a 120 hectare park that is located in the historic hub of the University of Nottingham. The park has been home to the University of Nottingham since it was gifted in 1921 by Jesse Boot, founder of the chemist chain. Nottingham is currently the only university to win a Green Flag Award.
The park opens its gates to all members of the public not just the city’s cream of academic talent allowing the whole city to benefit from a heady mix of intensive ornamental plants, rugged parkland and immaculate artificial sports pitches.
Grounds Manager Desmond O’Grady praises the academic establishment that lavishes £1.2m a year on looking after the site. “What’s impressive is the landscape responds so well to the academic buildings,” says O’Grady. “But it is not a landscape for exclusive use of students. Community involvement is crucial to the park’s ethos and so vital for its inclusive feel.”
What sets University Park aside from many other parks is that so many features are both special and diverse in nature. There’s the Millennium garden which was designed around the theme of time and provides a quiet, reflective place where people can escape the chaos of life. Around the corner is the Highfields walled garden with exotic and tender plants. The Jekyll garden is an ornamental showcase echoing a commission fulfilled by the legendary horticulturist Gertrude Jekyll in 1911. While the Victoria rock garden was one of the most recent to undergo a restoration that focused on natural resources and indigenous rocks.
An excellent friends group
O’Grady recognises the importance of engaging with the wider community and the park has an active Friends’ Group which promotes the park and gives it a social pulse and creative impetus. “We go a long way to make visitors feel welcome through bold entrances, signs and information,” he says. “Our Friends’ Group organises programmes of walks and park events, while a flurry of literature lets everyone know what we’ve got to offer.”
Sustainability and biodiversity are also high on the agenda, and the horticultural team is looking to push more ecological boundaries. The park may boast fully mature trees, flowing wildflower meadows, clumpy grassland and conservation areas, but there is more to do. The parks management team is undertaking a big ecological review to look at ways of managing the site in a more sustainable way.
Combining ambitious biodiversity plans with well-kept ornamental pockets, a bowling green and artificial sports surfaces demands large and varying upkeep regimes. Park leadership is hived off to section leaders to inspect their allotted zones on a monthly basis and, with each section leader having worked in their field for a considerable amount of time, quality control is very high.
The long-established woodland and contemporary gardens of University Park have drawn the attention of more than just the thousands of passers-by. The campus is not only a previous Green Flag Award winner but last year the north-entrance section also won the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) Britain’s Best Flower Border award.