Allesley Park gets its name from a large, ancient deer park, which stretched from Broad Lane to Allesley Village. The recreational park we see today is the northern fifth of the original area, with the remainder occupied by houses and roads. The deer park existed in 1250 and may be much older, being described as parcum ex antiquitate in 1279. Around 1382 the boundary between the manors of Stoneleigh and Allesley (now Guphill Brook) ran per medium parci de Allusle (through the middle of Allesley Park) and a 1660 survey shows that the English name Allesley Park was in common use by then.

 

What is interesting is the fact that Allesley Village did not get its name before the late 1600s. Surveys from 1587 and 1626 both refer to the village as Church End, one of several ‘End’ hamlets scattered around the boundary of the park. The name Allesley Park is therefore much older than the name Allesley Village, so our park was not named after the village. Both names actually refer to the medieval Allesley manor which contained most of Allesley parish and bits of Coundon and Stoneleigh.

 

The park was created by the Hastings family, who were powerful barons and lords of many manors, so it was certainly the most important feature in the landscape at a time when Church End and East End (Eastern Green) on the opposite side of the park housed the serfs who maintained it. So you should never let anyone get away with implying that Allesley Park is a park named after Allesley Village!

 

A 1387 survey of Allesley manor showed several ruined buildings in the park, the result of neglect after the Black Death (1349) and the extinction of the Hastings dynasty. By the early 1600s the only remaining building was Castle Lodge, some of which survived within the farmhouse that was demolished in 1990 to build The Dovecotes. The first building at Allesley Hall dates from around 1662, although it was called the Mansion House up to the nineteenth century. At times the names Allesley Park Hall (note the word order) and Allesley Park College were also used. The name Allesley Hall was first recorded in 1842 and is the usual name for today’s hall that was rebuilt on the same foundations in about 1910.

 

Allesley Park is 600 years older than the first known reference to Allesley Hall and more than 400 years older than the first important building on the site. It was therefore entirely wrong for Coventry Council to invent the name Allesley Hall Park a few years ago, as though the park was an accessory to the Hall. It took a year’s campaigning before the Council corrected their mistake. Names are important because they preserve the historical setting of a place, and the name of Allesley Park deserves special protection because it has such a long history.