RHS Garden Bridgewater another step closer to opening

Work to complete the country’s fifth RHS garden in Salford is making great progress with carefully restored walled gardens, a new wild play area and the RHS’ first community wellbeing garden all taking shape.

An unprecedented 700 volunteers have supported the construction of the new 154-acre RHS Garden Bridgewater over the last two years which opens to the public in the autumn of 2020.

The fifth RHS Garden is being created in the grounds of the historic Worsley New Hall adjoining the Bridgewater Canal near Worsley village and is a project that has been enabled by Peel L&P, as the Bridgewater Estate landowners, and supported by Salford City Council.

Peel L&P’s land and planning team took a guided tour of the garden on the afternoon of the 22 October led by RHS Head of Garden, Richard Green.

Highlights included glimpses of the new Welcome Building which visitors enter before proceeding to the new Paradise Garden which will form the centerpiece of the site.

There will also be a woodland play area where children can climb rhododendron sculptures and walled gardens have been restored by specialists using stone from the Scout Moor Quarry, further embedding Peel’s history into the site.

The walled gardens are one of the largest in the UK at 11-acres in size.

More than 10,000 of the 100,000 plants programmed for RHS Garden Bridgewater have already been planted and work has started on the RHS’s first wellbeing garden - a haven for people suffering from mental and physical health conditions to access therapeutic horticulture.

The team also got chance to walk the route of the proposed Chinese stream garden that will lead from Worsley New Hall’s original lake to a new lake next to the new Welcome Building. During the visit, full sized beech hedging was being delivered and planted causing a great deal of excitement and impact.

RHS Garden Bridgewater is designed by the award-winning Tom Stuart-Smith with local architect Stephen Hodder designing the Welcome Building.

Louise Morrissey, Peel L&P’s Director of Land and Planning said: “It was a real team building event to be able to witness the progress the RHS have made. We were all able to visit before work began and the difference is incredible. Everyone had a really informative afternoon visit.

“We were taken aback by the amount of hard work that’s going into creating this wonderful place and the huge support from the community to make this happen.

“We’re very excited and proud to be part of this legacy project which will create a top -class visitor attraction for Salford as well as new jobs to boost the local and regional economy.”

RHS Garden Bridgewater is part of the RHS’ wider ten-year £100+ million investment programme to make the UK a greener and more beautiful place.