Park Gardens

I was getting panicky about getting a shot and thought I might find something on an early evening trip to the Co-op. I noticed this tree in the park as we went in and crossed my fingers the light would still be strong enough when I came out. It was, nearly. My first shots couldn't get it at all, so I tried the Super Vivid setting and was much happier. I have adjusted the contrast slightly and trimmed a tiny bit off the edge and am very happy with this autumnal shot. The line up of post box, bin, telephone junction box and planters is rather amusing.
Park Gardens is a snippet of municipal park, on a hill, with a war memorial and some interesting bedding (as well as a magnificent pampas grass which is just out of shot). Despite the apparent tautology, it is named after Herbert Sidney Park (1894- 1917).
This is an extract from Stroud Town Council's leaflet about Park Gardens.
Herbert Park is just one of nearly 200 Sons of Stroud Parish who gave their life in the First World War. Herbert for his part in the war that wasted a generation fought in the Ypres salient in Belgium but died in France as a result of a training accident.
In October 1927, ten years after the death of his only son in the great war, Sidney Park gave Park Gardens to the town. The official ceremony to hand over the park was held in March 1928. The official presentation was a big event with hundreds of locals turning out. The chief guest being Sir Frank Nelson then the MP for Stroud.
In presenting the park to the town Sidney saw it as an event where sorrow and joy were closely intermingled. For him the park was "a garden of remembrance, a memorial to those who had made the great sacrifice" and expressed the great hope that "many young and old might in years to come in visiting the gardens find health, rest pleasure and enjoyment".
I always want to call it Bank Gardens as it is on such a slope, but that is another tiny municipal park behind St Lawrence's church off the High Street. These days it is a park to meander through, up the hill to Uplands or the Co-Housing Project; the preserve of babies and toddlers, and teenagers meeting for a chat, a smoke and a drink (often followed by the notorious PC Davis).