Park of the week

114. Garston Park 

Garston Park is in Garston, a suburb of Watford. It’s another one that I found by looking for green spaces on a map. About half of the park is a Local Nature Reserve. Garston Park is one of Watford’s most important areas for wildlife and has also been designated a County Wildlife Site by the Hertfordshire Biological Records Centre. It is a Green Flag Award winner.

The Nature Reserve is made up of various wildlife habitats including grassland, wetland, and woodland. A wide variety of wildlife can be found there including slow worms, muntjac deer, foxes, and pipistrelle bats. The reserve has woodland which is mainly oak, ash and sycamore. Mammals seen there include muntjac deer, red foxes, and pipistrelle bats. birds include great spotted and green woodpeckers and several species of butterflies. 

I usually try to find out some historical information about the parks we visit, but I couldn’t find anything about the origins of Garston Park. Although I can’t tell you when it opened, it must have been before 1947 because I found a newspaper article from August 1947 about the Watford Fair, held in the park in aid of the Printers’ Pension Corporation. It included sheepdog demonstrations, bicycle polo and bathing beauties. 

The park outside the nature reserve is mown grass which has, table tennis tables, football pitch, outdoor gym and a small skatepark. There are picnic tables, but no café or toilets. There’s also a children's playground, which not only has one of Jack’s favourite swings but three large percussion instruments:  xylophone, glockenspiel, and tubular bells. We both like these and I usually manage to produce a passable Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.

There’s a small car park and spaces are available on the surrounding streets.

Judith Field

Garston Park, Coates Way, WD25 9NY