Saumarez park is my favourite local park, I love the history that goes with it.
The house and grounds once belonged to Lord Admiral James Saumarez, 1st Baron de Saumarez.
Most of you wont be familiar with that name but, James was a true action hero, he was around at the same time as Lord Nelson and basically took over when Nelson was killed!
However unlike Nelson, James was not an attention seeker and preferred a quite reclusive life regardless of his amazing achievements and long term service as Admiral of the fleet in a time when Britaina ruled the waves.
Anyway he was gifted the park land as a wedding present and built a nice but not OTT house, he also landscaped the area with rare and interesting trees.
That was around 1790 and in around the 1930s the whole property was given over to our island and has been run by our government ever since.
Unfortunately the grounds could not be maintained to the original standard of the once extremely wealthy Lord and his decedents but they are still keep clean and tidy by a small team of gardeners.
When I was younger say 45 years ago the park had many more magnificent trees and architectural features that have been since deemed un safe!!!
I find it has lost much of its magic and has become more of a well used community park with kids playground and a lot of dog mess.
Still a beautiful spot ….
The second picture show one of those kangeroo nightshade things that are popping up everywhere on the island!
fourth picture shows a magnificent and ancient fig tree. Picture seven is a new community project to replace the old Japanese fisherman's hut.
