Wythenshawe Park – Memory Box Trail

Wythenshawe Park was a gift to the people of Manchester in 1926. Since then it has played an important part in the lives of many thousands of people, some of whom shared their memories in ‘A Park for the People’, an exhibition that opened at Wythenshawe Hall in 2008 with the help of the Heritage Lottery Fund. The following summer, Studio One was commissioned by English Heritage Outreach and Wythenshawe Park to develop a sculpture trail that represented peoples’ memories from the exhibition or the experiences of Studio One participants whilst visiting Wythenshawe Park. Many families have old tins or boxes with special items that remind them of past events or people. These are our own ‘memory boxes’, containers of memory, and an external prompt that take us back to a time or a place when looked at. Taking inspiration from this idea, and from work of celebrated American artist Joseph Cornell and his technique of Assemblage, found objects were placed in boxes to tell a story to the viewer. The sculpture trail opened on Heritage Open Days in September 2009 and was in place for a month before the boxes were relocated to The Horticultural Centre in the Park for a further year.

Images from the Trail…

I used to really love going round the Hall. I used

to sit in the window seats there for hours on end,

just quietly sitting and imagining what it

must have been like to live in the house.

I brought my children here and now I bring

my grandchildren. I've shown them where the

dogs’ graves are. I was shown them when I

was ten and told that they were the dogs that

belonged to the family that lived here.

I always loved the fun fair. I just loved the whole

atmosphere it created; the smell of candy floss, hot

dogs, grease, fumes and the music they played on

the rides.

Knowing the park from 1947 you can't push

it aside. It's there in your head all the time.

I remember as a toddler learning to

swim in the paddling pool at the park

playground on a warm summers

day. I can remember the smell of the

pool, the laughter of the children and

the thrill of so much water.

Working there made me extremely

passionate about improving it.

I used to love my bowls. I always did. I still

go watching them on Monday afternoons. It

was always a very close knit group. I tried to

go about four times a week on the green and

practice.

My abiding memory was the wonderful

plants and flowers, the Rhododendron trees

and the many different species of trees of all

colours in the Park.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to this project

We had the reception in the Hall for my

daughter’s wedding in 1966. There was

about thirty of us. We had a nice meal and

then a party. Margaret wanted the gardens

for her photos.