Inscriptions: South Park
The lettering on this stone, which stands outside the railings of South Park in St Clements, is by Eric Gill. It reads
THIS PARK WAS
ACQUIRED BY THE
OXFORD
PRESERVATION
TRUST THROUGH
THE LIBERALITY
OF THE
PILGRIM TRUST
AND DAVID
AND JOANNA
RANDALL MacIVER
1932
The “South Park” of Headington Hill Hall (lying on the opposite side of Headington Hill to the Hall and linked by a bridge) was under threat in the 1920s, when the city council hoped to use it for housing. But the Morrell Trustees would only release a strip of land to the south, and the council house estate built along the edge of the park was appropriately named Morrell Avenue.
In 1932 the Morrell Trustees sold the remaining 60 acres of South Park to the Oxfordshire Preservation Trust, with the stipulation that no building should ever be erected on it.
In 1959 the land was handed over to the City of Oxford to be preserved as an open space for the benefit of the public.
The cartoon from Punch below relates to the founding of the Oxford Preservation Trust
Wikipedia: David Randall MacIver