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Manor Heath Park & Jungle Experience

The Walled Garden

A lovely Tuesday afternoon and what better than a jaunt in the park? Calderdale is a wonderful place, within easy reach of large cities like Leeds and Manchester but equally close to the wonderful countryside. Even in our urban areas we are blessed with parks - sculptured landscapes, nurtured flowers and many water features.

Manor Heath park is the site of the former Manor Heath, home to John Crossley. The house was built on a design put out to competition won by Alfred Smith and his partner Parnell. It was built in the Gothic style in 1853 and demolished in 1958.

paddling pool

During its life it had many visitors; 1863 The Prince of Wales (the future Edward VII) stayed there when he came to open Halifax Town Hall. In 1903 George V and Queen Mary stayed as guests of the new owner Giulio Marchetti. Marchetti was the Managing Director of John Crossley and Sons, when he moved to London, the house and grounds were sold to Halifax Corporation in 1929 for around ?18,000. Many plans were discussed for its reuse but as is always the case with local authorities, they allowed it to fall into disrepair meaning its later demise.

John Crossley's house - Manor Heath - once stood here

Site of the house

The site of the house is now a quadrangle with a sundial in the middle. There is an attractive display of flowers which are all grown within the grounds. Indeed, Manor Heath is the location of the council's "plants nursery". All the flower on display around the borough are grown in the greenhouses onsite and then distributed around the area.

The children's playground consisting now of swings, climbing frame and a see-saw was added in February 1954 as well as the shallow paddling pool. The pool is open usually every summer during the school holidays and offers a refreshing, clean dip to cool from the heat. The pool is filled in the mornings and emptied at the end of the day for safety and hygiene reasons.

one of the butterflies in the jungle experience

a resting butterfly

The Jungle Experience at Manor Heath Park, Halifax is a tropical oasis packed with fish, quail, terrapin and butterflies as well as a collection of plants from all over the world, where visitors can enjoy the all year round tropical atmosphere. The walled garden has many traditional and modern designs of planting, and the well kept park has a children's play area, picnic tables, mature trees and well kept gardens. A must for all the family!

Rain or shine, this place fails to disappoint. A lot of money has been invested and it's obvious to people who visit often. The advertising spiel doesn't come any way near to explaining how wonderful these attractions are, I only hope our photographs in this article and the Halifax photographs album give you the urge to visit.

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 06 September 2005 )