– Keith Blackwood

As a young family with two growing boys, we moved to Knaresborough 31 years ago from Teesside, and have been enjoying this part of the country ever since. Now the boys have grown up, we visit the park with the grandkids.

We got our dog Mabel around three years ago and, until then, did not know an awful lot about Jacob Smith Park (JSP), apart from occasionally seeing cattle roaming about as we passed it. Someone mentioned the park to us saying it was open to the public so we decided to investigate. Needless to say, both Mabel and ourselves then realised it was a great place to feel at ease and have lots of freedom.

We now have another dog that loves the park, Leo, and he is getting to be well known in the park for his fun attitude. We have met lots of lovely people in the park and always stop for chats and catchups.

We always mention the park when we meet new people to the area and they say, as we do, that it was a Godsend for this to be donated to the town.

Local folk always show an interest in keeping the park tidy and well managed – and this all helps to make it the special community place it is.

Keith's grandkids