Priory Park & Museum

This park was gorgeous in the summer! I can only imagine how beautiful it is in the spring. I didn’t realize exactly just how big it was until my friend and I started exploring. We stumbled upon the priory, walked through the gardens, and toured the museum. There’s so much space! (Maybe I was amazed because I have been living in Japan for the last couple of years, maybe it wasn’t too impressive).
I’d highly recommend walking through the park if you ever have the time!

There’s something for everyone here at this hidden gem!
Tennis courts, historic Priory museum, events in the summer including the classic Concert in the Park and Southend Shakespeare season with summers evening shows in the centre.
A lovely peaceful location away from the hustle and bustle of town life. Although there’s limited parking available for events there are additional areas.

This is a truly beautiful and historic park that I loved to go when I lived in Southend in the 70s &80s. The museum is great with it’s rosewood grandmother clock and the lovely, quiet garden next to the museum with it’s fountains etc As a child I used to call it The Secret Garden as in the book, because it was so beautiful and peacefull. For the town planners to even consider carving up Priory Park, as was considered, for a road is a total outrage, leave it unspoilt so others can appreciate it the same as I have.

This is a really big park, which can be hard to find within towns nowadays.
Often you’ll find a football team or two training, surrounded by lots of space for everyone else to enjoy the greenery.
The café is ok, not amazing but it is in the middle of a park — so very convenient.
Take a bit of time to visit the pond too, it’s usually buzzing with wildlife, but you may have to sit still for a bit to see any!

So much potential, but as most assets of the town. Wasted. No investment. like a time machine to boredom. Just like the pier, hadleigh castle to name but two. Radio museum is good. and its a real interesting place. Dont be put off, but it could be so much better.

A lovely park with lots of grounds. Includes beautiful gardens, play area, pond, playground. Also has Southend’s new bandstand. Some free parking. Café could be better. Definitely worth a visit.

a true gem of a park, oozing with history, it is one of the oldest landmarks in the area, orignally being a monastry. the museum is a good place to find out more about this, which is located within the park.
very spacious, with parking facilities. great spaces for playing football or flying a kite, or too run around! the park offers basketball and tennis courts too, as well as a secure and clean playground area for the children. with many beautiful gardens and the bandstand too, they also have refreshmanets available in the café.
the gardens are kept so beautifully, all year around. one of my favourtite parks to go to, and recommend to everyone.

Priory Park is a great place to take children. Although the playground part is not fantastic, the actual park is big enough to spend a day enjoying. Ducks and other waterbirds to be fed, the bandstand playing live music on Summer weekends, different types of garden, trees, lakes etcand enough space to set up family games e.g. rounders or to fly kites. In the Autumn there are loads of trees dropping conkers.
The only things that let it down are the Café which smells of chip fat and is not particularly inviting and the toiletsleave a lot to be desired. However they are useable and shouldn’t put you off going.

living locally, and without a garden i try to get to as many parks as possible with my children.
priory park is the best park in the area, with a wide space to play, a great playground area, big areas for playing football, and with the bandstand too now!
they also have a café which provides refreshments, and the museum which is really imforative, giving you lots of information about the history of priory park
the beautiful and well kept gardens makes this place truly magical to visit. feeding ducks and squirrels is good fun too!

I so love Priory Park, and am so glad that they suspended the through-​road they was planning to place here, destroying such natural beauty and heritage would be a crime.
I think the park measures in at somewhere around 35 acres, and features play areas for children, areas to fish in, (not sure if you need a license or consent form), and also areas to picnic in, a small museum, bowls, tennis, basketball, football, rugby areas, (all designated), and some of the most beautiful foliage around.
It’s well worth a visit just to treat your eyes to such an unsurpassed level of beauty.

A lovely park .Very big with lots to do. Big play area, lots of grass for kite flying/​football matches with the kids. Beautiful gardens to walk around. Café is OK so better to take a picnic. Carparking. Can be awkward getting out onto busy dual carriageway over a hill.

Prioy Park is a surprise for the first time visitor; around the green and pleasnt open space is the urban sprawl of Southend, so to the uninitiated it could be considered to be a regular park and play venue, but there is more. Visiting it nearly every other weekend nearly all the nooks and crannies has been delved into.
There are options for all, for instance on a recent visit this weekend: young kids and parents enjoyed a packed play equipment park, in the south section; groups of young people, teenagers and families sat in huddles on the wide green area leading up to the café, some were enjoying improvised BBQs others just sat and lazed in the late summer sun. Over the way the elder crew were enjoying a game of bowls in the well provided for club. Just along from this a large mixed audience were spell blound by a Chinese puppet show at the bandstand. Queues of all kinds were trying to get an ice cream or cup of tea from the café right bang in the centre. adjacent to the café are some worn tennis and basketball courts which were being well used, and further to the east four or five football pitches were bustling to local league action. Keep going, and there is so much more, beyond and round from the footie, is wilder more natural area which is dominated by nature, mature trees of all kinds which never fail to impress, and at this time year the early autumn fruits of chestnuts and conkers were scattered everywhere. The offer just keeps going as beyond this area are the lakes attractive in their own right but providing the dedicated fishing community a tranquil oasis to ply their sport. We are now back to where this started and possibly, having missed the jewel in the crown. The Priory, a grade I listed property provides a venue of historic value for the town with landscaped and walled gardens, as well as a building that provides a museum of Ecko factory history, up till recently a nearby neighbour, and the products made over the years including radios and TVs adourn a discovery room in the priory.
Priory Park is a must visit on a sunny day at anytime of the year, a park passionately protected by the towns people and preserved proudly by the council’s parks department.

Priory Park is a huge park just outside of Southend. If you have kids its a must as there is loads of space for them to run about and play including a large kids playground! Although its not only kids that would enjoy it, the park features a walled garden with bedding displays and borders with climbing roses and shrubs, as well as the 12^th Century Priory Museum. Some parts of a Cluniac monastrey still remain forming part of the museum.
Walking around the park the amount of wildlife you see is amazing! From the ducks and swans on the pond, to the rats and voles running around the edge of the pond and the squirrels running across the path in front of you!
Park opening times vary throughout the year, depending on the time of the year obviously being open later during the Summer compared to the Winter.
Entry to the park and museum as well as all the facilities apart from the café are free so its a nice cheap day out too!
Facilities Include
Basketball Courts
Bowling
Café/​Restaurant
Childrens Playground
Fishing (Although you do need a licence)
Football Pitches
Museum
Parking
Picnic Area
Tennis Courts
Toilets
Nature Reserve
The Walled Garden
Large Pond (Great for feeding the ducks with the kids!)