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Oaklands Park

Oaklands is an established and popular parks, which covers approximately 5 hectares (12 acres) of grounds within the historic quarter of the City of Chelmsford. It was first opened as a public park in 1930 and today boasts both Green Flag and Green Heritage status. The park is also home to Chelmsford Museum and Essex Regiment Museum so offers up plenty of choice when looking for new things to do in Chelmsford to occupy a few hours.

The park and museum together make a winning combination, offering visitors a wide choice of opportunities for exploration. The Hive Cafe alongside the Museum makes Oaklands Park a destination park for a good day out.

This historical park offers a museum of local and national interest.  There is a large open grass area for sports and picnicking, tennis courts, play areas, the award-winning Echo Garden, and traditional ornamental gardens.

Oaklands has a lively events programme on offer, too. In short, the park offers something for everyone and is well worth a visit.

 

Visiting us

Find us

Chelmsford
CM2 9AQ

Opening times

Open as per car park

Parking

52 spaces plus 4 disabled

Opening time
7.30am

Closing Times

Jan 5pm Feb 6pm Mar 6pm Apr 8pm
May 9pm Jun 10pm Jul 10pm Aug 9pm
Sep 8pm Oct 7pm Nov 5pm Dec 5pm

No out of hours unlocking facility

Parking restrictions apply

Bus

To find bus routes visit First Essex

Walking/Cycling

Good walking & cycle access

Facilities

Facilities

Cafe
Museum
Toilets
Disabled Parking
Neighbourhood Play Area
Local Play Area
Picnic Area
Public Art
Ornamental Gardens
Kickabout Area

Sports

Tennis
Multi Sports area

Useful Information

Oaklands museum

The Hive cafe

K9 Police Dog Memorial

Green Flags Award

Contact us FAQs
oaklands park
oaklands park

In 1865 the local brewer and industrialist Frederick Wells, built Oaklands House, based on Queen Victoria’s residence at Osborne on the Isle of Wight. As well as being a residential property the house was used as a hospital in World War I, and when the land was sold again in 1930, Chelmsford Borough Council bought it for use as Chelmsford Museum. 

The parkland that surrounds the house is now public open space, some 12 acres, which was formally part of the Victorian gardens of the house.

Many of the mature trees in the park today would have been planted in the 1800’s. The fine Wellingtonia (or Giant Redwood) to the rear of the Museum would have been something of a novelty when introduced to this country and planted in the mid 1850’s. Until it was felled by the hurricane of 1987, there was also a huge Turkey Oak situated on the front lawn. This would have been planted as a focal point when the house was built.

The park boasts mature Pine, Yew and Lime, together with a number of Beech trees.

oaklands park

Octagonal seat

Today’s park reflects the Victorian past with its historic landscape character and Victorian Italianate style villa. Park improvement works seek to take account of and build upon the 1865 layout of the grounds and path network.

A bespoke octagonal tree seat, complete with timber decking, was commissioned and installed in July 2019 and seeks to put a modern twist on the octagonal tree seat existing when the park was first opened. The original was of an all wood construction and was lost when it fell into disrepair and was removed in the 1960 on safety grounds.

You can see the existing Redwood tree and Cedar tree in the early photograph and will note that the new seat has been positioned around the Redwood rather than the Cedar to create a seating area set away from the path in a place of prominence.

Nearby green spaces

John Shennan Field
0.4 miles
marconi ponds lnr
Marconi Ponds Local Nature Reserve
0.52 miles
Central Park
Central Park, Bell Meadow and Sky Blue Pasture
0.65 miles