Eaton Park is one of a series of formal parks that received government funding after World War I as part of a building and planting programme.
It was designed and built by Captain A Sandys-Winsch, a landscape architect, who was Norwich City Council’s parks superintendent from 1919 to 1956
As with the other parks in the programme, it is characterised by its formal geometric layout.
At the main formal entrance (on the southeast corner off South Park Avenue) a pair of large ornamental iron gates leads into a great circular rose garden surrounded by a yew hedge. At the centrepiece is a fountain surrounded by seating.
A tree-lined avenue passes the crazy golf and floodlit tennis courts, leading to a domed bandstand and a great colonnaded pavilion, where there are changing rooms, toilets and a café.
North of the bandstand, the park is open and the path leads past a group of
mature trees to the children’s play area on the northern edge of the park. South
of the bandstand there is a long, rectangular, sunken lily pond. Beyond this is
a yachting pond.
The miniature railway and bowling green, also used for croquet, is situated to the east of the model boat pond.
The
main body of the park, west of the bandstand and pavilion, is an expanse of
sports pitches and large grass areas.
Eaton Park was very much designed as an active sporting and recreational park. There is an 18 hole pitch and putt course, crazy golf, a 9 hole putting course a miniature railway, skate park and cycle speedway track. The model boat pond is used by a model boat club which was formed in 1926 and is still active today.
This rich and diverse history has been recognised in the park being listed as a Grade II* site on the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Specific Historic Interest in England.
