The Restoration of Hale Park Gates

One of the main focal points in Hale Village are the park gates, these were once the main entrence to the once then parkland and estate of Hale Hall, owned by the Ireland Blackburnes. These gates are dated way back to the 1800s and could be even older.

For many decades, the gates and entrence would have been used by the Ireland Blackburne family, although with the gates,, these would have been closed 99% of the time to the local villagers and were only opened if and when the Ireland Blackburnes needed to commute out of the village, as the land was then privately owned by the Ireland Blackburnes,, there was no reason for the pubilc to enter the estate and parkland. To enter the park in those days, was by invitation only.

To the right we see the entrence and gates to the parkland and estate of Hale Hall, this photograph is dated late 1800`s.

Note, that there are 3 stone pillars, compared to today, were there are only two

Since the family de-camped in the late 1930`s and moved to France and the estate land was sold on, the park entrence and gates were never touched or kept in good repair.

For nearly well over 70 years the entrence of the parkland was hardly touched, apart from several families occupying the Park Lodge who used the gates, also Home Farm allowing cows to grase the parkland therefor requireing a wicker type gate to stop the livestock wandering and also access to an Air Raid shelter which use to be infront of the current changing rooms during and after World War II. Only up until around 30/40 years ago, the parkland we see today was then opend up to the village and the general public, allowing them to use the parkland for recreational use.. Even then, during these times,, the park entrence was never really renovated or any major renovation project commissioned! Not until the turn of the Millenium,, the year 2000!

Hale Millenium Committee was set up to devise numerous Millenium

projects around the historical village of Hale to celebrate the turn

of the new century and one of these main projects was a full

restoration of the Parklands Gates and Entrence! If you ever

wondered if Hale had any community spirit, then this was sure to be

shown during the period of the Millenium celebrations with regard to

the numerous projects such as the restoration of the Gates.

An estimate at the time of the full renovation of the gates and entrence was around £20.000, some of this amount was raised locally

along with a £5000 grant from the Local Heritage Initiative, the Heritage Initiative is run by the Countryside Agency and receives

financial support from the Heritage Lottery Fund.

Once the work on renovating the gates and entrence was commissioned, local villagers were more than pleased to basiaclly get stuck i

n and restore this prime focal point in Hale Village back to it`s Victorian splendure. Along with the brick-work of the gate pillars, there

was also scrub and woodland to clean up adjacent to the park gates, this is were many villagers helped out and as the months went by,,

their hard work started to show reward!! The once overgrown woodland was now more cleaner along with the gates and pillars taking

shape, the entrence to the parkland was now looking how it onced looked several hundred years ago.

On the 23rd day of April 2001 the official unveiling and opening of the fully restored Park Gates and entrence took place. Those villagers who had helped in anyway to bring about the restoration of the gates attened the service along with villagers with the service conducted by Father Ed Cain and Geoff Engle. Attending the service was the then Lord Mayor of Hale Village Eric Goldrein and Colin Naylor-Chairman of Hale Parish Council. Once the service was complete the official opening took place by Eric Goldrein.

Further restoration included the Ireland Blackburnes Coat Of Arms embeded into the brick work of each gates brick pillars, along with a brass plaque commemorating the restoration and official opening of the gates and entrance.

While the restoration of the main gates was being carried out and the clearing of the woodland, a small 18th century estate iorn gate was found in the wood buried in the undergrowth. This gate was also restored, returned to it's original place and hung from it's original mountings in 2006.

The inscription engraved on the estate irn gates plaque reads:

This is the original gate from this site circa 1876 and it was restored by Friends Of Hale Park 23rd April 2006

The Park Gates and entrence are now the focal point of Hale Village, and are in the public eye all the time. The area of the gates and entrence are now cleaned on a regular basis by Halton Borough Council and through the co-operation of Hale Parish Council and the Friends Of Hale Park, the driveway area from the main-road and through the restored gates is swept and cleaned by a resident of Hale village. To ensure the restored gates and drive-way do not fall into dissrepair again, Halton Borough Council, Hale Parish Council and The Friends Of Hale Park group liase on a regular basis.

The entrance to the parkland lies at the heart of the village, opposite both the Post Office and the War Memorial. For many years the entrance had remained untouched unkept and untidy. Since the Millenium projects in the village, the restoration of the gates and the entrance where one of the main acheivments. For those who remember the gates and entrance through the years/decades, will nodoubt be thankfull for those who voluntary gave their time and skills to restore an historical landmark within Hale Village.

To the left we have a short 2 minute video of how the gates and entrance now look.

The footage shows the main entrance with restored brick-work, new iron main gate,

re-tarmacked surface, new iron estate railings, recently restored small iron estate gate along with various improvements to the shrubbed area and small wood on the right-hand side of the park drive.

Click on the video screen to play the video.

Hale Village Online © 2005-2008

The website for the historical village of Hale in Halton