On May 12 1884 Abbey Fields became the town's major park.

When the 5th Earl of Clarendon, Edward Hyde Villiers, put the entire estate including Little Virginia up for sale there was the real possibility that it would all have been sold as building land.

The Local Board (the Kenilworth Council of the day) stepped in and bought all it could afford (see image, the central 40 acres in red) for recreational purposes for the 4,500 or so Kenilworth townsfolk.

Residents of Rosemary Hill and Abbey Hill bought the blue area to preserve their outlook, and a syndicate of four privately bought the rest, green, to dispose of as they wished, but not for profit.

Abbey Fields' growth over time (image via Robin Leach)

Over the next 90 years, the blue and parts of the green areas were donated by individuals, or purchased by the board and later council to create the park we have today; the last two areas were added on 30 March 1974, the last day of the old KUDC.

Those responsible for initially saving the land and creating the park are not as well-known as they deserve to be.

They include William Evans (and later his daughter Gertrude), Luke Heynes, Sam Forrest, Joseph Burbery, Henry Street, and George Turner in particular, but Walter Lockhart, Dr Daniel Wynter, Richard Robbins, William Clarke and others also played their part.

We should be grateful to them all.

Full details can be found in Robin Leach's Abbey Fields book.

The extent of Abbey Fields today (image via Robin Leach)