Parks and playgrounds directory

Location

Selhurst, runs from Selhurst Road to Tennison Road.

Area

8 3/4 acres 3.34 hectares.

Facilities

• Footpath through a flood meadow

History

The area of Heavers Meadow and the adjacent allotments were conveyed to the Croydon Corporation in 1935 by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for use as an open space or recreation ground and allotments or allotment gardens.  

In the eighteenth and nineteenth century the western side of the site was covered by a wood called Dragnet Wood in 1800 and Selhurst Wood in 1867 by which time it had been split in two by the railway.   Norbury Brook runs north west along the bottom of the site before disappearing beneath Selhurst Road. The brook reappears in Thornton Heath Recreation Ground and behind several private houses in between.  

The brook is fenced off because it can be very dangerous; after a rain storm the water level can rise several feet in a few minutes as the water rapidly drains from the roads and hard surfaces around and into the surface water drains.