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The RHS Garden Bridgewater, opened on 17 May 2021, is the Royal Horticultural Society’s first new garden since 2003. Situated in Worsley, in the City of Salford, the garden occupies 62 hectares (153 acres) on the site of the derelict gardens of the demolished Worsley New HallWorsley's third manor house, New Hall was built in 1846 to designs by Edward Blore for Francis Egerton, 1st Earl of Ellesmere. . The RHS hopes it will attract a million visitors a year.[1]
The garden’s first curator is Marcus Chilton-Jones, and its designer is the landscape architect Tom Stuart-Smith.[1] The project cost £35 million, of which Salford Council contributed £19 million.[2] The first phase of restoration included the walled kitchen garden, designed by Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg. Harris said the design references the Bridgewater Canal, the estate and the area’s role in industrial revolution. The RHS will also develop an education garden, a therapeutic garden, two lakes and multiple community spaces.[1]
Background
Worsley New Hall was completed in 1846 to designs by Edward Blore for the 1st Earl of Ellesmere whose ancestor, the Duke of Bridgewater, built the Bridgewater Canal from Worsley to Manchester in 1761. Its gardens were extensive, with terraced gardens constructed by landscape architect and artist William Andrews Nesfield. Queen Victoria and Edward VIII, stayed at the hall, but it fell into disrepair during the Second World War and was demolished by a scrap merchant in 1949.[3]