Special parkrun celebrates Love Parks Week

Two hundred and seventy-one parkrunners gathered in The Walks last Saturday to take part in a special run celebrating Love Parks Week.

Love Parks Week celebrates parks, green spaces, and the volunteers and workers that look after them.

The event attracted runners from afar with visitors coming from Hampstead, Birmingham and Scotland. Gary Walker, event director, said that all the visiting runners, “expressed their pleasure in joining the local runners in such a lovely park”.

At 17 hectares, The Walks is one of the largest town centre parks in the country. The park also has a long history, tracing its origins back to 1753, when wealthy town merchant Charles Turner planted hedges, chestnut, and lime trees along an existing track leading from Greyfriars precinct to the Guanock Gate, in what would become the Broad Walk.

According to Mr Walker, Turner’s purpose was to, “allow him, his family and friends to promenade away from what was then a very crowded and smelly town”.

Back then The Walks was only for the wealthiest families in town, with gates and gatekeepers positioned at the entrance to ensure no ‘undesirables’ were allowed in.

The Walks expanded alongside Lynn in the late Georgian and the early Victorian period, as the benefits of having an open space for recreation became more recognised.

The Walks was also the scene of fighting during the English Civil War, with Red Mount Chapel used as a gunpowder store.

The Lynn parkrun is free to take part in and takes place every Saturday at 9am. It is open to everyone, regardless of age or ability. Those wanting to take part for the first time should first register at www.parkrun.org.uk/register/.

For those interested in the history of the park, the Lynn Town Guides run Walk in the Parks, a tour which covers the history of the town’s parks. Further details can be found at www.kingslynntownguides.co.uk/guided-walks