A post card view of the Rose Garden, Ropner Park, Stockton. undated. 
Picture Stockton Archive
A Pictorial History of Stockton-on-Tees
A post card view of the Rose Garden, Ropner Park, Stockton. undated.
Ropner Park was transformed by the recent work. Heritage Lottery money? Does the fountain work now? My wife – Peta (Riley) – remembers a second fountain off to the left on the way down to the lake which has been removed. It was donated by one of the Riley family of Riley Boilers.
I moved away from stockton in 2001 and was equally upset to see so many parts of the park destroyed. Then I revisited it in 2009, it’s now a protected park and has been re developed, it’s a beautiful park! Try google maps to see it.
I DONT KNOW WHY BUT THE LOCAL COUNCIL/PARKS PEOPLE RIPPED IT ALL OUT AND LEFT LOOKING IN THAT STATE FOR A LOT OF YEARS.IT BECAME A DUMP FOR THE SOIL IN THE PARK, BUT ON A GOOD PAR A GREAT SITE FOR BRANLINS OR EARTH WORMS FOR THE FISHING!!!!
As a teenager in the mid 1940s, the Rose Garden in Ropner Park was one of my very favourite places. A beautiful tranquil spot where I was able to do a little study for the School Certificate. I do remember the crazy paving, but can not bring to mind any inscriptions on them. On a visit to Teesside eight years ago, one of the first places that I visited was the Rose Garden. Vandals! Philistines! Who can have caused so much damage to this little haven? The place looked as though it had been used as a training ground for a Squadron of Heavy Tanks, churned up earth, heaps of rubble and the whole covered with weeds. Being a Chap, I did not weep. But I felt like it. Does anyone know what the condition of this area is like now?
Rose Garden – if this was the garden on the right, going down the steep path to the lake, I recall that the some of the crazy paving included stones bearing inscriptions, they must have been broken headstones from a churchyard somewhere? Anybody else remember this?