Cornwall Park, Auckland
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One Tree Hill near the heart of Cornwall Park
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Location within Auckland
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| Type | Park open to the public owned by Cornwall Park Trust |
| Location | Epsom, Auckland, New Zealand |
| Coordinates | 36°53′54″N 174°47′05″E / 36.898411°N 174.784821°ECoordinates: 36°53′54″N 174°47′05″E / 36.898411°N 174.784821°E |
| Area | 670 acres (2.75 km²) |
| Created | 1901 |
| Operated by | Cornwall Park Trust |
| Status | Open year round during daylight |
| Website | www |
Cornwall Park is an expansive parkland in Epsom near the heart of Auckland, New Zealand, surrounding the park containing Maungakiekie pa or the hill of One Tree Hill. The two independent parks form one large park of 670 acres (270 hectares).
"A place of public resort for the recreation and enjoyment of the people of New Zealand" said its donor. The Park has centuries-old heritage sites, wide-open spaces, tree lined avenues and walks, places of peace and tranquillity in a large city, sports grounds including tennis and bowls and a working farm for the education of city children.
John Logan Campbell, Auckland resident since 1840 and, at the time of this gift, mayor, gave the park's 230 acres to a private trust on 10 June 1901. Maungakiekie had been purchased by the national government in 1845 and since 2012 belongs to Ngā Mana Whenua o Tāmaki Makaurau Collective.
Campbell chose to present the deeds the following day to the visiting heir to the throne, the duke of Cornwall and York later George V asking his consent for it to be named Cornwall Park in honour of the duke. A few weeks later the adjoining Alexandra Park was named in honour of the duke's mother.
Campbell gave the land to Cornwall Park Trust, a trust he had established for the purpose. The park was described at the time as "two hundred and thirty acres of the finest land in the district", or 93 hectares, a portion of some 1,100 acres (450 hectares) at One Tree Hill bought by Dr Campbell many years before. He had planned to build a house there and planted the parkland in preparation for that but he subsequently chose to live near the centre of the city in Parnell on part of the site of their rose gardens. Still marked by his trees the carriage drive he made in Cornwall Park sweeps in an S-bend from Puriri Drive across Greenlane west of the Park's Greenlane entrance to his house site near Huia Lodge. Visitors may walk along it from the gate opposite the Park's administration and works depot in Greenlane. There were to be further gifts including the land about Puriri Drive and Campbell Crescent and the endowment lands, Alexandra Park and Auckland's Show Grounds, together with housing sites to be made available on 21-year leases.
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Wikipedia