Sparke Evans Park

The land for the park was gifted to the Bristol Corporation in 1902 by Peter Fabyan Sparke Evans (1826–1905) and his brother Jonathan Evans. Peter Fabyan Sparke Evans was a long-serving Bristol magistrate, sitting on the bench for about 24 years before withdrawing in later life because of deafness. He was a major local employer through the Avonside Tannery on Feeder Road, and known for his involvement in charitable work in the city. The donation of land was thus intended to provide a recreation ground for the industrial workforce of St Philips Marsh. The land itself occupied an area of former arable land once known locally as the Bean Field. The brothers, in a letter to the Lord Mayor Sir…