Despite being crossed by industrial tram lines and forded streams for the mill and factories nearby, Chandos Park has long been used as a town leisure space. Several sports clubs utilised the space as factory owners looked to provide entertainment for their workers. These included Buckingham Town Football Club in 1883 – who played at Ford Meadow, now used as a car park, while nearby United Dairies Factory added a bowls club to the park in 1932. It’s still used now for community events such as Play Around the Parishes.
In 1938 the County Council created plans that preserved the area as ‘private open space’ zoning the surrounding areas for use as industrial, business and housing.
Riverside Walk
Chandos is a great place to join up with the Riverside Walk. The River Great Ouse that winds through Chandos Park is the longest of 5 other river Ouses, and flows from Brackley to the North Sea via the Wash in Norfolk. The word “Ouse” derives from a Celtic word for water.
With thanks to the Centre for Buckinghamshire Studies for the use of archive photograph of the Football Club in the 1930s.
Borough of Buckingham map of the park dated 1938.