RHS Garden Bridgewater
| RHS Garden Bridgewater | |
|---|---|
.jpg?lang=en) The Weston walled garden | |
  Location in Greater Manchester | |
| Type | Garden |
| Location | Worsley New Hall |
| Nearest city | Salford, England |
| Coordinates | 53°29′59″N 2°24′01″W / 53.4998°N 2.4004°W |
| Area | 154 acres (62 ha) |
| Created | 2020 |
| Operated by | Royal Horticultural Society |
| Open | 18 May 2021 |
RHS Garden Bridgewater is the Royal Horticultural Society's fifth public display garden. It is located in the village of Worsley in Salford, Greater Manchester, England.
Gardens
[edit]Bridgewater Gardens has been created in 154 acres (62 ha) of the former Worsley New Hall estate, with the Bridgewater Canal forming the southern boundary. It is the RHS's first new garden since it acquired Harlow Carr in North Yorkshire in 2001, and was one of Europe's largest gardening projects when under construction. It opened to the public in May of 2021 and since then has led the way in developing a unique blend of heritage landscape assets combined with biodiversity initiatives and underpinned with community based outreach programmes. [1] In 2022 the garden was awarded first place in The European Heritage Garden Network's (EHGN) category of 'Best Contemporary Garden in a Heritage Setting'.
Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith has created the overall plan,[2] in which the walled kitchen garden will be restored, historic features such as the tree-lined Garden Approach recreated, and the lost terraces reworked.[3] Marcus Chilton-Jones was appointed the first curator of the garden in January of 2017 with responsibility for overseeing the horticultural evolution of the new site.[4]
Currently, the garden curates the national collection of edible rhubarb (Rheum x hybridum) at c. 100 cultivars. Plans are in place to add the national collection of gooseberry (Ribes uva-crispa) and blackcurrant (Ribes nigrum) in the future.
Funding
[edit]The expected total cost of the project was £32.7m, of which the RHS invested £15.7m of its own funds and received (by December 2019) a further £12.7m through grants and fundraising,[5] including a £5m grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation[6] and further donations from Salford City Council.
History
[edit]In May 2022, the visitors' centre The Welcome Building was crowned by the Royal Institute of British Architects as the North West Building of the Year. It was praised for its "sustainable and engaging" design.[7]
Television
[edit]The BBC filmed a four-part series about the construction process at the garden titled The Great Northern Garden Build, which began broadcasting on BBC Two from 10 May 2021, just before the 18 May 2021 opening date.[8]
See also
[edit]- List of botanical gardens
- RHS Garden Harlow Carr
- RHS Garden Hyde Hall
- RHS Garden Rosemoor
- RHS Garden Wisley
References
[edit]- ^ "Designs for our future garden". RHS. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ "RHS appoints designers to take forward RHS Vision". RHS. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ "The dawn of a new RHS Garden". RHS. Retrieved 12 May 2019.
- ^ "Curator Appointed for Royal Horticultural Society's New Garden, RHS Garden Bridgewater". RHS. Archived from the original on 12 May 2019.
- ^ "Help open the gates". RHS. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ "Weston Garden Opens at RHS Chelsea". Garfield Weston Foundation. Retrieved 13 December 2019.
- ^ "RHS Bridgewater's visitor centre wins architecture award". BBC News. BBC. 24 May 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2022.
- ^ "BBC Two - The Great Northern Garden Build". BBC Two. BBC. 10 May 2021. Retrieved 10 May 2021.
External links
[edit]
Media related to RHS Garden Bridgewater at Wikimedia Commons- RHS Garden Bridgewater – official site
