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Rowntree Park

public open space in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 10, 2026
Entity authorityQ7372266 ↗
Source-derived summary

Rowntree Park is a Grade II-listed public park on Terry Avenue in Clementhorpe, a suburb of York, England. It was created as a memorial to employees of Rowntree's who died in the First World War and was opened on 16 July 1921 by Joseph Rowntree. The park was laid out between 1919 and 1921 and later expanded in 1926–27 and again in 2000, increasing its area to 25 acres (10 ha). Several early features were added during the 1920s, including public swimming baths and an aviary. The riverbank entrance gates, erected in 1954 and believed to have come from Richings Park in Iver, were listed at Grade II* in 1983. Rowntree Park has received a Green Flag Award each year since 2004.

Facilities

The park features children's playgrounds, tennis courts, bowling greens, basketball court, skateboarding area and general areas for picnicking. The park also features a large lake, a canal and a water cascade, and is home to many ducks, swans and Canada geese, as well as a large dovecote. The park's outdoor swimming pool was demolished in the 1980s, despite strong public support for keeping it open. The park is also home to a reading cafe, which is a branch of the York Explore public library.

Editorial summary

Begin with the source’s own compact description: “Rowntree Park” is public open space in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through Rowntree, Park and public, not as a finished interpretation.

Editorial reviewA practical starting point whose main value is the path it opens into stronger specialist and primary sources. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1921, 1919, 1926, 2000—that can be checked directly. The selected authority fields contribute no independent date. For this dossier, Rowntree, Park and public is the immediate research focus.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The phrase “public open space in York, North Yorkshire, England, UK” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.

Evidence profile

Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 10, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7372266. The first chronological checks are 1921, 1919, 1926 and 2000.

Critical limits

A concise general-reference account can conceal disagreements about scope, terminology or the weight assigned to individual sources. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  • Subject orientation
  • Search vocabulary
  • Locating named sources
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The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Rowntree Park”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Rowntree Park primary sources, Rowntree Park archive and Rowntree research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rowntree Park”?
  2. Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
  3. Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “Rowntree Park” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.