Manor Park, Aldershot

Manor Park is an urban park in the town of Aldershot in Hampshire. A short walk from the town centre, it has been a public park since 1919. The former manor house located in the park is Grade II listed. Facilities include a play area, tennis and basketball courts and an all-concrete skate park designed and built by Fearless Ramps and which opened in 2013. Today Manor Park is owned and maintained by Rushmoor Borough Council.

The 63 acre Manor Park was purchased by the Aldershot Urban District Council in 1919. The park is close to the site of the old village of Aldershot with a history dating back to Anglo-Saxon times. On the park's perimeter is the original village green and the old parish church of St Michael the Archangel.

The impressive red-bricked three-storey house Manor House located in the park was built in 1670 by Sir Walter Tichborne and was occupied by his family for about 200 years. The Tichborne family had originally lived in an older manor house in Aldershot Park but feeling the need for a larger and grander home they erected the building we see today.

After being sold by the Tichbornes the manor house was home to three generations of the Newcome family, starting with Captain George Newcome, Aldershot’s first magistrate, who bought the estate in 1847. It was his descendant, Captain Newcome RN, who sold the park and manor house to Aldershot Urban District Council in 1919.

For some years the building served as the Register Office for Aldershot; among those who married here was Violette Szabo GC who married the Free French soldier Étienne Szabo at Aldershot Register Office on 21 August 1940 after a whirlwind 42-day romance. Here too, in 1942, the New Zealand nuclear scientist Clifford Dalton married the scientist and author Catherine Graves (daughter of the writer Robert Graves). It was made a Grade II listed building in 1963 and is now private offices.

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