36 FOEESTS, WOODS, AND TKEES 



obtained by purchase. Opened in 1876, it has been 

 extended to 34 acres, the total cost amounting to £26,330. 

 Miss Ryland presented as a second gift to the Corpora- 

 tion 43 acres of partly wooded land at Small Heath, and 

 £4000 to lay it out as a park, which was opened as 

 Small Heath Park in 1879, and renamed Victoria Park 

 in 1887. 



The most important event in the history of the parks 

 of Birmingham was the securing for public use of the 

 Lecky Hills, the only range within easy access of the city. 

 A few building plots had been sold on one of these 

 hills, Rednall Hill. Mr. Grosvenor Lee, the Secretary 

 of the Birmingham Association for the Preservation of 

 Open Spaces, in 1887, with the help of several prominent 

 citizens, purchased the rest of the hill, 32 acres, which was 

 conveyed to the Corporation in 1889, as a place of public 

 recreation for ever. The other two hills, Beacon Hill, 

 33 acres, and Bilberry Hill, 49 acres, were afterwards 

 secured. Beacon Hill rises to 1000 feet elevation and 

 commands a view of ten counties. The acquisition of this 

 hilly tract, covered with pine and larch and heather, was 

 a great achievement. The learned American blacksmith, 

 Elihu Burritt, gives this description : " Any summer day in 

 the year when the sun shines on them, these hills are set 

 to the music of merry voices of boys and girls and older 

 children who feel young on the purple heather at fifty." 



Of the parks in the added areas, not formerly included 

 in the district under the control of the Birmingham 

 Corporation, there may be mentioned Handsworth Park, 

 6 3 acres, at Handsworth ; Queen's Park, 1 4 acres, at 

 Harborne ; and Sparhill Park, 1 9 acres, at Yardley, mostly 

 acquired by purchase. In the well - wooded district of 

 Warley, Lightwoods Park and its extension, some 30 acres, 

 were the gift of several citizens from 1903 to 1915. 

 Warley Park, a fine natural woodland of 109 acres, was 

 partly acquired by gift and partly by purchase, the cost to 

 the Corporation being £50,472. Perry Park and Reservoir, 

 about 100 acres, of which 88 acres was purchased fur 



