Sir Charles Napier public house). In 1880 the first park bandstand was constructed west of the large lake. This was supplemented two years later with Italian gardens laid out adjacent to the Broad Walk. The statue of Flora inspired horror writer William Hope Hodgson to write his first fiction story "The Goddess of Death". 20th century In 1900 the new conservatory was opened. In 1905 the fountains, which had been in continuous operation since 1857, were turned off. The Northern Daily Telegraph reported a plan to fill the basin of the large fountain with flowers and the others with weeping plants. Although this never happened, the fountains were turned off owing in part to the nuisance caused by the reported drifting of the large fountain's water jet and the £30 annual cost of operating the fountains. The Red Rake site, recently added to the park as a playground was supplemented with new bowling green in 1906 to provide work for unemployed of Blackburn. Money was provided by the Distress Committee, using £307 received from the Queen's Unemployed Fund. In 1908 a gramophone concert held in the park drew an audience of 20,000. The second bandstand was officially opened in 1909. On a Sunday in February 1914 there was a loud explosion heard across Blackburn, resulting in much interest from the public, many of whom assumed there had been an explosion at Addison Street Gasworks. It transpired the next day that one of the trophy cannons had been fired with about 1½lb of explosive as part of a protest by suffragettes. Users of the park reported seeing a flash and houses around the park were shaken. A large piece of calico cloth was found next to the cannon in a brown paper parcel, on which was written in blue pencil: The firing of the cannon required the removal of several years of stones and gravel from the cannon. It was also supposed that the device was not cleaned before it was fired, resulting in the surrounding area being splashed with a yellow substance. In 1921, it is reported that the park is to have more sports facilities, including four tennis courts and bowling greens to be laid below the eastern end of the broad walk. A new pavilion, The Bowls House, would serve these facilities. Plans for the War Memorial and Garden of Remembrance were approved on 5 October 1922, which