Alexandra Park, Penarth - A postcard from the Penarth Dock Collection posted in April 1906. It is a Tuck's card sadly a bit the worse for its age. The rear of the Esplanade Hotel and the baths may be seen through the trees. [000] [001].

After swimming at the baths, I often missed the bus so had to walk up through the park to get up to the town, passing by that place where they used to gas me and pull my rotten teeth out. The surgery of 'Jones the Butcher', as he was known at school in Dinas Powys (and also by Julie at Cogan Primary School!) was opposite the station and near the art gallery. Who remembers the rocking horse and the smell of the rubber mask then?

The park was named after the wife of Edward VII, the land gifted to the town by the Robert Windsor and opened to the public in June 1902.

Alexandra Park, Penarth - Another postcard from my collection in a pristine condition, unposted, which maybe explains its fine condition. The rear elevations of the Esplanade Hotel and baths are clear as is the bandstand and shelter. A smartly dressed nanny attends her ward in the gleaming, gloss white perambulator. The impressive cannon were relics of the Boer War (1853–56) in the Crimea. [000] [001]

View in Alexandra Park, Penarth, Showing Guns - Another postcard and piece of social history from the Penarth Dock Collection. It was posted in August 1906 to an address in Bournemouth and written in the lovely hand of Gertrude, who is 'Having a lovely time at Penarth'. [001] [20170627]