Harris Park, (also known as Harris Knowledge Park and Harris Orphanage), Fulwood, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

HISTORIC DEVELOPMENT

Edmund Robert Harris was a wealthy lawyer who acquired a fortune through investment in the railways in the mid-19th century. At his death in 1877 he bequeathed £300,000 for philanthropic purposes in memory of the Harris family, including the formation of what became known as the Harris Museum in Preston and the Harris Orphanage. In 1881 a roughly 6 hectare plot of land in open agricultural land to the north of Preston was acquired by the Harris Trustees as the site for the orphanage. In 1884 a Building Committee was formed, and it was decided to build a village homes-type orphanage for 120 children in the domestic style pioneered by Dr Barnardo at Barkingside, north-east London, in 1876. Benjamin Sykes was selected to be the architect.

In October 1884 the Building Committee sought and gained permission from the Preston Corporation Parks Committee for their Public Parks Superintendent, George Rowbotham (1833-98), to provide 'advice and assistance ... for the laying out of the roads and grounds' (Minute Book, 1884-91). Rowbotham had come to Preston in 1864 to assist Edward Milner with the laying out of Avenham, Miller, and Moor Parks (see descriptions of these sites elsewhere in the Register) (Preston Guardian, 1898). Early in 1885 Rowbotham is reported in the Minutes as having provided a report and sketch plan indicating the best mode of laying out the orphanage grounds, but it was not until early in 1888, with the buildings nearing completion, that this work began in earnest (the sketch plan does not appear to survive, 2001). Rowbotham employed and supervised the men working on the project, and in September 1888 advertised for tenders for the supply of 6000 trees and shrubs, for which a copy of the list of sixty-three species and varieties survives (Harris Museum). Woody material was also supplied from surplus at the nearby Whittingham Lunatic Asylum (letter, October 1888, Harris Museum). At least £660 was paid in men's wages for the manual work that year, with an additional £80 for trees and shrubs, and Rowbotham himself was paid £75 in February 1889 for 'his services and trouble in connection with laying out and superintending the formation of the grounds and selecting the trees and shrubs for planting the same' (Minute Book, 1884-91). The first child was admitted in November 1888.

In 1940 the orphanage school was leased by Lancashire County Council and after the Second World War the orphanage was renamed the Fulwood and Cadley County School (Harris Orphanage Department). It closed in 1982 and was leased to Preston Polytechnic, in 1985 being bought outright for student accommodation for the Polytechnic. The Polytechnic subsequently became the University of Central Lancashire, which is now (2001) converting the buildings to office use.