RHS Garden Bridgewater

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.

WWW rhs.org.uk/gardens/bridge...

Gardens

Bridgewater Gardens has been created in 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.
In 2022 the garden was awarded first place in The European Heritage Garden Network's category of 'Best Contemporary Garden in a Heritage Setting'.
Landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith has created the overall plan, in which the walled kitchen garden will be restored, historic features such as the tree-lined Garden Approach recreated, and the lost terraces reworked. 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.
Currently, the garden curates the national collection of edible rhubarb at c. 100 cultivars. Plans are in place to add the national collection of gooseberry and blackcurrant in the future.

Funding

The expected total cost of the project was £32.7m, of which the RHS invested £15.7m of its own funds and received a further £12.7m through grants and fundraising, including a £5m grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation and further donations from Salford City Council.

History

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.

Television

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.