This park and tennis courts derives from some 13 acres that was, for centuries, a piece of swampy waste land called by various variants of Hillebrooke. It was described in a 'Presentment to Fulham Court Baron' of 1727 as:

'Overflowing and little use or benefit for want of cleansing and scouring the ditches, for reason of certain floodgates and whelms, erected for the draining thereof being much out of repair and in decay. The water continuing upon the said commons makes the same noisome.'

In the 19th century the situation had improved so that the present name was appropriate since it was said that a substantial ditch around it and another across it were well stocked with carp, tench, roach and eels.

O/S Co-ords:2547.7685
Source(s):

A History of Fulham