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Jean Stansfield Memorial and Vicarage Park

Jean Stansfield Memorial and Vicarage Park is a peaceful park located in Poulton-le-Fylde. The park is home to mature trees and plants, offering a quiet retreat in the heart of the bustling market town.

The park flies a Green Flag which recognises the high quality of the space and the support of the local community.

Look out for mushroom sculptures in the wetland, see if you can spot birdlife including jays, robins and wrens, or simply enjoy the peace and quiet at one of the picnic tables.

Over in the playground children will enjoy the fantastic array of play equipment, much of which has been funded by the efforts of the Friends of Jean Stansfield Park group. The bowling green is played on by Poulton Bowling Club and the multi-use games area is popular with both groups and families for football and basketball.

Jean Stansfield
A life remembered, a gift to a town

Jean Stansfield was born in June 1914 in Rawtenstall, the only child of Samuel, a retired cotton mill owner, and his wife Jeanie, known to everyone as Queenie. Queenie was around 38 years old when Jean arrived, and in an era when such things were spoken of differently, her birth must have felt truly heaven-sent to what many would have considered an older couple. From the very beginning, Jean was cherished.

The family were known for their warmth and generosity. During their years in Rawtenstall, Queenie served as a member of the Rawtenstall Board of Guardians, a reflection of the couple’s deep commitment to their community and their care for others. In 1921, when Jean was around seven years old, the family made the move to Poulton-le-Fylde, settling into their home, “Oaklands”, on Blackpool Old Road.

In September 1923, nine-year-old Jean was taken suddenly and seriously ill. She was admitted to the Central Nursing Home on Hornby Road in Blackpool with acute appendicitis. Despite every effort, Jean passed away four days later, with Samuel, and in all likelihood Queenie, by her side. She was laid to rest at the old cemetery on Moorland Road, her grave marked by a beautifully carved statue.

In the depths of their grief, Samuel and Queenie turned their love for Jean outward. Determined to keep her name alive and celebrate the life she had lived so briefly, Samuel, a man of considerable means, purchased a plot of land adjoining Vicarage Road Park with a simple and generous intention: to create a place where children could play. A place full of the life and laughter that Jean herself had brought to theirs.

In June 1926, the park opened as a gift to the people of Poulton-le-Fylde. It is said that local schoolchildren were given a holiday in celebration of its opening, a fitting tribute for a park born out of a parent’s love.

Samuel passed away in April 1932, aged 63, and Queenie followed in January 1939, aged 62. They did not live to see the full extent of what they had given their community. But their legacy has endured — in every child who has run through its gates, every family who has picnicked on its lawns, and every generation that has played in the park that bears their daughter’s name.