Manchester is to get a major new garden

Manchester is to get a major new garden after the RHS unveiled plans to open its fifth garden on the site of Worsley New Hall in Salford.

The garden, to be known as RHS Garden Bridgewater, is expected to become a magnet for hundreds of thousands of visitors. It was once part of the historic 63ha (156 acre) Bridgewater Estate, owned by the 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, and boasted formal terraces, a 4ha (10 acre) kitchen garden (one of the largest in the country), pleasure gardens and an ornamental lake.

It was abandoned in the 1940s and work is now under way to transform the neglected garden into a fabulous new jewel in the RHS’s crown. Multiple award winning designer Tom Stuart-Smith is to lead the project, restoring the terraces to a modern design, replanting the kitchen garden with fruit and vegetables and building a new plant centre and learning centre. Historic features such as the tree-lined Garden Approach are also being recreated.

‘This will be the biggest hands-on gardening project the charity will have undertaken in its 211-year history,’ said RHS Vice President and TV broadcaster Alan Titchmarsh.

The garden should be open by 2019. For more information visit www.rhs.org.uk.