u3a

Chester

Eastham’s Victorian Pleasure Gardens – A Journey Back in Time

Event type: Meeting
Date: 18th June 2026
Time: 10:00 am - 12:00 pm
Venue: St Columba's Church Hall
Organiser:

David Mottram talked to 120 members about the history of Eastham Ferry and the Victorian Pleasure Gardens that developed in Eastham Woods

* Doors open 10 am * Meeting started 10.30 * Free Refreshments*

Eastham Woods was the location of an extensive Victorian Pleasure Gardens between the 1840s and the 1920s. In this talk, David Mottram will take us on a journey through the woods and we learned what remarkable attractions were on offer to visitors, particularly on ferry boat trips from Liverpool. Attractions included floral and zoological gardens, circus acts, such as the tightrope walker Blondin (who had walked across Niagara Falls), a boating lake, a water chute and a loop-the-loop railway. He also described what evidence of these attractions still remain, such as the famous Bear Pit.