Description:
Highfields Park came into being due to the benevolence of Jesse Boot.
In 1920 Boots (the chemists) was taken over by the American, Louis K. Liggett of the United Drug Company and Jesse Boot sold his controlling interest for almost £2.5 million. Now aged 70, he embarked on an 'orgy' of spending to benefit the people of Nottingham.
Boot had been an admirer of the Cadburys at Bourneville and William Lever at Port Sunlight who had housed their workers in decent homes alongside purpose built factories, and almost immediately after the end of the First World War he bought the huge Highfields Estate with the intention of using the splendid wooded site to build another Bourneville.
But after the American take-over of the company, it soon became apparent that United Drug were not going to take up Boot's scheme for a new model town on the Highfields Estate, so he offered 35 acres of the Estate as a site for the University. The remainder of the 220 acres he decided should be laid out as a pleasure park for the benefit of all in Nottingham. The project was also to include the construction of a £200,000 road through the Estate to provide a much-needed new route between Nottingham and Beeston, and the enlargement of the existing water pond to create a boating lake.
The firm employed to carry out the lake's enlargement was instructed to dump the excavated spoil on the line of the new boulevard. In this manner the roadway was raised up in the hope of preventing possible floodwaters from the Trent spreading right across the parkland.
Work on the lake's enlargement began in 1922 and was completed in 1925. Tottle Brook supplied the water for the lake. In this public park, which was to have a boating lake, pavilion and sports fields, Jesse Boot decided to add the largest inland swimming pool in Britain - Highfields Lido.
It would appear that parts of the park were opened as they were finished, and that there was not a specific opening date. In all probability the public was not granted full use of the park until about 1926.
Back in 1923 Jesse Boot had formally handed the City Council the deeds to the parkland, but during his lifetime chose to retain control of the park's management. Through the Sir Jesse Boot Property and Development Company, his own park staff were employed to maintain the grounds, supervise the sports facilities and manage the catering from the Tea Pavilion beside the lake.
This arrangement continued until 1932 (Jesse Boot having died in June 1931) when the City Council formally adopted the park. To offset the extra expense to which the Council would now be put, Jesse Boot had even left a gift of £30,000 specifically to help with the park's upkeep.
Information extracted from the www.lentontimes.co.uk website.