History of St Anns Well's Gardens, Hove

A teachers resource exploring the history of St Annes Well Gardens in Hove, East Sussex.
Using archive images ,the pack is aimed primarily at KS1 & 2 children.

There are also accompanying resources, another presentation exploring the legend behind the parks name and short excerpts of early film made in the park.

1. St Ann’s Well Gardens
Hove

2. In 2008 St Ann’s Well Garden is celebrating its hundreth birthday. The
park was opened as a public garden on May 23rd in 1908.
But for nearly a hundred years before that, it was a private pleasure
garden, visited mainly by people who wanted to drink the water from
the garden’s spring.

3. The spring was known in the early days as a chaleybeate.* It became fashionable
to come to Brighton and Hove to take the sea air and drink the sea water.
Visitors were recommended to go to St Ann’s Well as its water was thought to
be health giving.
* ‘Chaleybeate’ means a spring whose water has iron in it.

4. The owner of the park decided to build a well around the spring to make it nicer for
more visitors to come and take the water. Later a Pump House was built.

7. In the 1880s the new owner of the park decided to
try to make the park popular again. He
improved the gardens, renovated the Pump
House and held a musical tea party.
A legend was told about how the park got its
name.

8. George Albert Smith
In 1892, a man called George
Albert Smith rented the park
from its owner.
He was very interested in
photography and making films.
He turned part of the Pump
House into a laboratory and
made many short films there.

10. As well as using the park to make
his films, George Smith put on
lots of activities to raise money
to make films. These were very
expensive to make.
Some of these attractions included
a monkey house, a gypsy
fortune teller and a hermit’s
cave.

13. Another of these activities was
releasing huge balloons.
Sometimes they broke free
of their rope and flew
away. These balloon
ascents attracted huge
crowds.
In 1894 nearly 4000 people
came to watch a balloon
release.
Later on people went up with
the balloons. Sometimes
they went so high that the
people would parachute
out of the balloon.

14. In 1908, the owner of the park, Mr. D’Avigdor Goldsmid offered Hove
Council the opportunity to buy the park. There was a party to celebrate
its opening on May 24th. The mayor gave a speech and planted an oak
tree by the Pump House.

15. This is a photograph taken on the opening day of the park in 1908. It shows
the mayor arriving in Furze Hill.
What is different from how this road looks today?
Is there anything that is the same?

17. Here is a ticket from around the time of the parks opening. It lists some of
the things that you could do in the park then. How are they different
from the things you can do in the park today?

18. In 1953, it was decided to build a garden for the blind on the site of the old
croquet lawns. The plants were chosen carefully because of their
scent. A dovecote and a shelter were included in the design. There is
also a beautiful big willow tree in the gardens.

19. This is an invitation for the park’s
centenary celebrations.
Which attractions are different from
those on the opening party a
hundred years ago?