The 120-year-old history behind the Rivington parking row

Between comments from visitors, comments from businesses, and comments from politicians, the plans have proved extremely controversial.

But one point keeps cropping up – one that takes us more than a century back into the history of Rivington Estate and its surrounding areas.

This is the history of William Lever, 1st Viscount Leverhulme, and the park he granted for locals to use, free of charge, in perpetuity.

Rivington Reservoir (Image: Gillian McGowan)

A gift

William Lever was born in Bolton in 1851, making his fortune in the soap trade as a founder of Lever Brothers – now better known as the international conglomerate Unilever.

A local lad, the soon-to-be Viscount Leverhulme retained strong ties to his hometown despite his expansionist and occasionally globetrotting tendencies. This led him to purchase the Rivington Estate in 1899/1900 for a sum of £70,000 – more than £8,000,000 in 2026 currency.

The estate afforded the Viscount around 2,100 acres of private land on which to indulge himself. This was, apparently, more than he felt he needed, as, in 1901, only two years after the initial purchase, he wrote to then Mayor of Bolton John Miles to offer 400 of those acres for use as a public park – absolutely free.

What’s more, the park would be developed and maintained entirely at William Lever’s expense.

Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Mr Miles gladly accepted this gracious gift, doing so on behalf of the people of Bolton.

It was to these people whom Lord Leverhulme intended to act as benefactor, etching it into the stone pillars of the park’s entranceway to act as an eternal reminder: “For the benefit of the citizens of his native town and neighbourhood.”

Water Wars

The reservoirs work by gravity – each one cascades into the one below it (Image: Derek Cartwright)

Perceptive visitors to Rivington may have noticed the area is not just comprised of land, this being due to the presence of several quite large bodies of water.

These are, of course, the Rivington reservoirs, constructed in the 1850s using then-state-of-the-art technology to supply water to the bustling port city of Liverpool.

It was Liverpool Corporation – now Liverpool City Council – that offered the first challenge to Lord Leverhulme’s dream of a perpetually free and perpetually open public park.

This was because they owned the reservoirs around which the park was built.

Despite previously declining an opportunity to purchase the land themselves, Liverpool Corporation changed their minds when they saw Lord Leverhulme had decided to purchase it for himself, going so far as to promote a parliamentary bill to acquire the land compulsorily on the grounds of watershed protection.

Lever, of course, contested this, resulting in an Act of Parliament, passed on May 30, 1902, which, although granting Liverpool Corporation some of the land for the protection of the water supply, also granted Lord Leverhulme the right to build his park.

This act – the Liverpool Corporation Act 1902 – stated the owner of the land would:

“Permit [Lord Leverhulme] at his own expense to lay out the said lands as a public park herein-after described as “Lever Park” for the use and enjoyment of the inhabitants of the county borough of Bolton and generally of the public for ever… and generally to form, lay out, and deal with Lever Park as may appear to him to be desirable in order to secure their free and uninterrupted enjoyment by the public.”

Rivington Reservoir (Image: Derek Cartwright)

“In accordance with Lord Leverhulme’s wishes”

In 1974, stewardship of Lever Park passed into the hands of the North West Water Authority, the predecessor organisation of what we know today as United Utilities.

It was 23 years later, in 1997, that North West Water would make its first attempt to introduce car parking charges in the area via the Lever Park Bill.

This bill would also have increased the group’s freedom to manage the park, set up a management trust, and extended the management area boundary to include the terraced gardens.

It would be an understatement to say this was controversial. Detractors, including the 5,807 signees of a petition dedicated to fighting the bill, believed it gave North West Water too much power. They were concerned not only with parking charges, but entry fees and changes to its landscape and layout.

The petition ended with the following request: “Wherefore your Petitioners pray that your honourable House reject the Lever Park Bill in order to preserve free access to the park for the public, in accordance with Lord Leverhulme’s wishes.”

Lord Leverhulme talking to a group (Image: Martini)

Den Dover, then MP for Chorley, was incensed enough to cancel a trip to Brussels, allowing him to personally speak on the bill’s opening in the House of Commons. In his speech, he referenced the 1902 Liverpool Corporation Act:

“We object because Lord Leverhulme, who established the Unilever empire, gave that land, and did not want it commercialised or entry or parking charges made. The Bill’s spirit is to over-commercialise the park. I am against such commercialisation–which is appropriate at Park Hall but not at the heritage site left by Lord Leverhulme, whose wishes we should honour.”

At the end of July of this year, United Utilities – the successor of North West Water – submitted a planning application for “eight number plate recognition cameras and four payment machines” at various locations around Rivington Reservoir.

Unsurprisingly, Lord Leverhulme has figured heavily in much of the public and political reaction to this.

Horwich Cllr David Grant said: “In 1902, Lord Leverhulme gifted Lever Park to the people of Bolton for free, open-air recreation. Under subsequent acts, maintaining the estate was explicitly meant to be covered by the water authority as part of their landowning duties.”

United Utilities, however, maintain the potential charges are for the good of the park.

Rivington Reservoir at a distance (Image: Derek Cartwright)

A spokesperson said: “Funds generated from car parking will be ringfenced and used to support improvements such as the creation of new car parks and refurbished car parks with bay marking, upgraded footpaths and signage, new toilets, new visitors centre, restoration of heritage assets including Liverpool Castle, the creation of education and engagement spaces and on-site staff who can help manage visitors, improve safety and protect the landscape.”

Debate is currently raging around the proposals. But, despite dying over a century ago, it seems at times as though Lord Leverhulme’s voice still rings the loudest.