This article is written by Edward Beaumont, a member of the Memorial Gardens Association (MeGA) Any opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MeGA.
The Memorial Garden occupies about six of the 36 acres that Sir Jesse Boot, founder of Boots the chemists and a big Nottingham benefactor, purchased in 1920 for £20,000 and gave to his home town. The land was transferred initially to the Trust Sir Jesse had established, which mainly dealt with his other benefactions for Nottingham.
The City Council, called the Corporation then, already owned a wide strip of land along the bank of the river Trent, where the carriageway that we still see today had been built, all the way from near Trent Bridge right round to the Wilford Toll Bridge (tram line bridge today).
In 1920 the Corporation had not yet made a decision about what kind of War Memorial to have, to remember those who had been killed in the 1914-1918 War. It had considered putting one in the Market Square.
Nor was it clear in detail what Sir Jesse Boot envisaged the land given would be used for, except that it would be for the benefit of the citizens of Nottingham. Over the next year or two the idea of building the War Memorial where we see it today - just inside the land given by Jesse Boot, and facing the Embankment and the river - came into being, and the Corporation asked the Boot Trustees to transfer the land (the whole 36 acres) into its own name.
That transfer happened on 28 December 1922, the Conveyance (legal document of transfer) containing the crucial words….."unto and to the use of the Corporation in fee simple for purposes of public recreation and pleasure grounds for the people of the City of Nottingham for ever." No money was paid by the Corporation.
Plans then got started and the Foundation Stone of the new Memorial Arch was laid on 1 August 1923 in the presence of the then Prince of Wales. Building continued on and off for several years. The Arch was only finished in 1927.
Meantime the Memorial Garden and Rockery were laid out. This area was ready and declared open in April 1926, before the Arch was finished. Neither the records of the Boot Trust, nor the newspaper reports from that time, suggest that Sir Jesse contributed in any way other than giving the land. The Corporation obtained funding from the Ministry of Health, which was supporting many public projects at that time, and perhaps from other sources.
An article in the Nottingham Evening Post 9 February 1926 stated that construction of the "War Memorial Arch" is in progress and that it will be the main entrance into the new riverside park. A photograph in the Nottingham Journal 5 April 1926 shows the Arch under construction. A later photo of the "Arch of Memory" (Nottingham Journal 21 April 1927) shows it without scaffolding but still with a large crane next to it.
There was a change of thinking about the Arch being an entrance gate, for in the Nottingham Evening Post on 9 September 1927 it was said that… “on passing through the arch one will come to a terrace. The ascent of three steps will bring one to a balustrade, from which a fine view of the already completed ornamental grounds and lake will be obtained. The terrace is some nine feet above the level of the grounds, and beneath it are being constructed three shelters and lavatories.”…. The use of the ginger-brown Bulwell stone for this, contrasting with the white (Portland stone) of the Arch itself, was the subject of some criticism at about this time.
The War Memorial Arch was dedicated that November, on Armistice Day, 1927. An early photo of it from my father's album, and taken from a boat, shows the Arch much as today but with a balustrade on the river side, which is no longer there.
It seems that the "Memorial Garden" was not referred to with that exact name until a year or two after it was opened. But since then it has enjoyed that name, and over the years there have been minor changes, including removing and grassing over some of the original paths.
Some of the biggest changes have been:
the planting of trees in memory of various persons. Many of these trees are interesting and special ones. But some have grown very large so that they shade out the flower beds beneath. One or two are invasive species which with hindsight it might have been better not to plant;
alterations to the Memorial Arch to include reference to the fallen of the Second World War;
the installation of the statue of Queen Victoria, moved from the Market Square in 1953; and
the construction of the Great War Memorial for the 1914-1918 fallen of the whole county of Nottinghamshire, which was opened in 2019.
The Memorial Garden is susceptible to flooding, as it is at a level several feet below even the surrounding land. In about 2014 as part of flood defences, a wall separating the Memorial Garden from the Embankment (and round the back of the Memorial Arch) was raised or strengthened.
In 2018 the entire Memorial Garden and the site of the Memorial Arch was part of a much larger area dedicated by Nottingham City Council to the National Playing Fields Association (known as "Fields in Trust") under the "Centenary Fields Programme". This and the fact that the Memorial Arch is a listed building should go a long way to protect the whole area from unsuitable development in the future.
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