THE Japanese gardens, leading up to the Shipley Glen plateau, were the brainchild of Tom Hartley who moved from Bradford to Ivy House, Prod Lane, in 1886 with his family and wife Hannah, who was an invalid.
He built a series of features in the garden which his wife could look out over and enjoy from her bedroom window. These consisted of:
* A Pond or moat with an island in the middle containing a ruined castle folly and rustic arches. The castle and arches were built from clinker, the cinders forming one of the first concrete structures built in the area. These structures were covered with white lime.
To give them a rough and rustic appearance, Tom used the waste dross reputedly taken from the fireboxes of the steam trains which travelled from Bradford to Saltaire. Locals observed him wheeling the material by the barrow-load through the woods and up the hill to Prod Lane.
The castle accommodated seven people and had a chime of bells operated by a penny in the slot mechanism. The pond was set in the middle of landscaped flower beds and nearby was a smaller pond with a fountain, surrounded by archways over the paths and below the second pond there were water-lily and watercress pools.
The water for the ponds was provide by a stream running down Hope Hill from the top of Baildon Moor, which Tom diverted and rechanneled so that the water was flowing continuously.
For a small charge a boatman would row passengers several times round the pond in a boat originally called the Saucy Sue.
* Glasshouses and Photographers Studio.
He built two glass houses, one with a stream running through it, along with a small waterfall. The other, displayed cases of Indian butterflies and an aviary containing exotic birds, love birds, doves and a talking parrot. The glasshouses also contained a polyphon music box and a phonograph operated by water wheel.
Between the two was a small amusement arcade with penny slot machines. There was also a photographers studio with a plate camera for portrait photography, which offered the chance for visitors to be professionally photographed with the gardens as a backdrop.
Tom filled the garden with lilac, orange blossom and laburnum trees complemented by roses and other scented flowers. Cut flowers, postcards and bird boxes made in Toms workshop were also sold to visitors.
At the back of Ivy House he built a tea room which had a hut with long wooden tables and wooden benches as seats. Seesaws, boatswings and a model railway were also provided there.
* Changes In Ownership:
On the death of his wife Hannah, Tom remarried and built a bungalow for his new wife and family at the back of the gardens. On his retirement he sold the Japanese Gardens to Tom Clark who initially ran them as Shipley Glen Wonderland, then Tom Clarke’s Japanese Tea Gardens until 1918. He then sold them on to his brother Harry Clark who ran them as tearooms until 1924.
From that date ownership then passed to the Theakston brothers, first John and on his early death, George. The family retained ownership until the gardens were finally closed in the 1950’s. Over time with the advent of the car and alternative venues for holidays/ day trips, fewer patrons visited the Japanese gardens and Shipley Glen.
* Memories:
Mention of the Japanese Gardens generally brings a nostalgic response from people with fond memories of them.
Winnie Harrison of Bingley recalled visiting them in the 1920’s: “Our chief objective was the lake (pond). Tea could wait, so could the swings and seesaws. The lake was very small, no more than twelve feet wide and thirty feet long, with an island looking as Japanese as it could in the uplands of the West Riding of Yorkshire. For a penny or two pence according to your size a middle aged boatman punted children twice round the island.”
Perhaps the most poignant family memories are those of Margaret Ellis, the granddaughter of the Theakston Brothers, the final owners of the Japanese Gardens: “Now all that is left of the late Victorian / early Edwardian Gardens are older folks’ memories of halcyon summer days when they were young and their recollections of the warmth and happiness of a lost age.”
* Alan’s book Bingley a Living History is available from Luscombes, Bingley and Bingley Post Office.
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