The original of this address is at Tone Dale house. The text is as follows:
Gentlemen, We the Urban District Council of Wellington, Somerset in asking you to accept this Address, desire to tender you on behalf of the people of Wellington, our most grateful thanks for your magnificent gift of beautiful Park formally opened on this day.
We recognise the great boon you have conferred upon the Town in providing this charming place of Recreation, which will ever be a source of Recreation and benefit to the health of the inhabitants.
The common seal of the Urban District Council of the Parish of Wellington has been hereby affixed by our order this 2nd day of May 1903
Photos taken in September, 2018
includes tree planted by Lloyd Howard Fox in 1911
The following is an extract from Parks and gardens.org
History
In March 1902 a committee was appointed by Wellington Urban District Council to examine ways in which land for the creation of a public park or recreation ground could be obtained, in order that the town could provide a fitting memorial to the coronation of King Edward VII. The site favoured for a park, adjacent to the Beech Grove west of the town centre, was generally considered to be prime agricultural land and therefore beyond the financial means of the rate payers (Wellington Weekly News 1903). However, some ten days after this committee’s initial meeting, the Urban District Council received a letter from Joseph Fox of Messrs Fox Bros & Co, offering to donate to the town not only 4 acres (c 1.6ha) of ground including the Beech Grove, but also to lay it out at the company’s expense as a public park. This benefaction was accepted by the Urban District Council, and work on laying out the park began July 1902; an oak was planted by Harry Fox, the young son of F Hugh Fox, on Coronation Day (ibid). Fox Bros appointed Robert Veitch & Sons of Exeter to design and layout the park, the landscape scheme being provided by F W Meyer (d 1906), landscape gardener to the nursery, who was also responsible for designing parks at Devonport, Exeter and Poole (qv) (Gardeners’ Chronicle 1906). The buildings for the park, including three entrances, a bandstand, and shelter, were constructed by Messrs Follett Bros of Wellington, while the water supply and ironwork were provided by Messrs Bishop Bros of Wellington. The park was opened to the public at a ceremony held on 2 May 1903, and Messrs Fox indicated their intention to provide an annual endowment of £100 for five years towards the upkeep of the park. Mr Underdown, who had supervised the construction of the park on behalf of Robert Veitch & Sons, took over as the first park keeper (Skeggs 1996). Meyer’s plan for the park, together with a descriptive account was published by the Gardeners’ Chronicle in August 1902; the park remains substantially unchanged today (2013).
The site donated to the town by Messrs Fox Bros included, on its north-east boundary, a row of mature beech trees, after which the adjacent road was named Beech Grove. It has been suggested that the trees and road mark the course of a former drive to The Court, a C16 mansion which stands to the south-east of the park (Skeggs 1996). The line of Beech Grove is shown on the Tithe map (c 1840), while the enclosure which was to form the site for the park is marked as agricultural land on both the Tithe map and the late C19 OS map (1887).
Messrs Fox Bros manufactured worsted cloth and was the principal employer in late C19 Wellington. The company was owned by the Fox family, leading Quakers and noted philanthropists. In 1921, as a thanks offering for peace after the First World War, the company provided a further 5 acres (c 2ha) of land immediately south-west of the park for the construction of a recreation ground (outside the area here registered). The recreation ground was landscaped and provided with a shelter and clock. The need for such a facility was particularly urgent as the terms under which the park had been donated to the town prevented its use for games (Skeggs 1996).