page_title: Stapenhill Gardens
section_title: Stapenhill House and park
hierarchical_section_title: Stapenhill Gardens / Stapenhill House and park
caption_attribution_description: English: Stapenhill Gardens Mid August 2009. There is a new garden feature being built just off to the left, you can see the safety fencing.
context_page_description: Stapenhill Gardens is a park in the Stapenhill neighbourhood of Burton-on-Trent, in England. It mainly comprises the former site of Stapenhill House, which was donated to the town in 1933, woodland, lawn, wild flower meadows and formal planted areas along a 1,250-metre stretch of the River Trent. A public space, it includes a large cement-rendered sculpture of a swan that has been described as a "Burton landmark".
context_section_description: The park has been remodelled from that of demolished manor house Stapenhill House which had a drive leading into Main Street.  The house was H-shaped in plan and built primarily of brick with stone around windows (stone-dressing).  In 1662 the parish recorded its nine hearths under the new system of hearth tax. The house came into the ownership of the Goodger family.  Mary Goodger became the first female councillor of the borough in 1923, aged 84, and her son's wife its first female mayor in 1931.  Her son Henry, a solicitor who inherited the practice of H. Goodger & Son, donated the estate to the town in 1933, in her memory.  The 11.7-hectare gift enabled the joining up of an unbroken stretch of 1250 m of publicly owned parkland on the River Trent's north bank.
  For a time in the 1920s and 1930s a portion of the park, now known as The Dingle, was the Stapenhill Zoological Pleasure Gardens which had a bear pit and two crocodiles.  This area now has a car park and children's play area.
caption: Formal planting at Stapenhill Gardens; Stapenhill House was sited behind the trees in the background.
exif: {}