We recently paid a visit to Manor Heath Park, which is sandwiched between Skircoat Green and Savile Park, just outside the centre of Halifax.
Here’s a video that shows many of the paths and walkways of the venue, including the car park, surfaces, toilets and how a wheelchair user gets on exploring the main features of this popular venue. Below the video is more information on the park and its accessibility.
We visited the park with Alison, a local powered wheelchair user, who showed us round and tested the paths and walkways for accessibility. Visit Alison’s support and advice website here – disabilityroadmap.co.uk
More About Our Visit To Manor Heath
Manor Heath is one of Halifax’s most popular parks and is owned by Calderdale Council. We started our visit in the main car park, which has two disability spaces and gives you smooth, flat, tarmac-surfaced access into the park – the car park’s address is Manor Heath Rd, Halifax HX3 0BE. Further parking is available on some of the nearby streets, though not all of them have dropped curb access to pavements.
- Overview: The upper half features a mix of walled and sunken gardens, a indoor “jungle” experience, and a cafe with adjacent toilet-block. The lower half of the park is an area of open grassland, with trees, a children’s play-area and nature walk (the latter less accessible as its pathways are surfaced with wood chippings). The children’s play area has a range of swings etc, some of which are adapted for children with disabilities.
- Pathways: Although not all the park’s pathways are accessible to a wheelchair or powered scooter user, the majority are and almost all the park’s main features can be reached via a network of well-surfaced routes.
- Main Features: The “Jungle Experience” costs £1 to enter and, although its pathways are narrow, it is relatively easy to negotiate them in a wheelchair. It contains exotic plants, plus terrapins and goldfish, all enjoying an artificially warm and humid “climate” all year round. The walled garden was another highlight, with good access and plenty to see and explore.
- Cafe & Toilets: The cafe was busy on the day we visited, but the coffee was excellent and, with large entry doors and excellent, smooth surfaces, it was easy to gain entry in a wheelchair. The cafe building includes a block of toilets including an accessible toilet, which can be accessed with the help of cafe staff or with a RADAR key.
- The Lower Park: The lower half of the park has fewer features and was playing host to a small funfair on the day we visited. Again, the pathways are well surfaced and the gradients are gentle. However, access points into this part of the park are less accessible, featuring poor surfaces (cobbles and uneven paving stones in one case) and a lack of suitable parking, with the adjacent roads being busy and having no dropped curbs, making the transition from a vehicle to the park rather tricky.
To sum up, Manor Heath and its main attractions are generally very accessible for most wheelchair and powered scooter users. Gradients are mostly very gentle. The inaccessible pathways are easily identifiable with their woodchip surface and can thus be avoided. There is only a limited amount of disability parking and this is mirrored by a general lack of parking directly at the park. Surrounding roads, especially Savile Park Road, have plenty of space for parking, though the footpaths connecting them to Manor Heath are not all very wheelchair friendly.
More information on the park can be found on the Calderdale Council website
