Lancashire
Gardens Trust

Parks and Gardens in Lancashire

There remain many more historic designed landscapes of interest and importance and we have undertaken to investigate these through research projects, recorded in Researching Parks and Gardens. An exciting piece of news in 2017 was the announcement that the Royal Horticultural Society purchased the estate Worsley New Hall, Salford, where they have created their fifth regional garden, following on from Wisley, Hyde Hall, Rosemoor and Harlow Carr. Its name is Bridgewater Garden and the richly-planted terraces reach down to the Bridgewater canal.

Lancashire and the County Palatine

John of Gaunt, 2nd Duke of Lancaster, held land northwards to the Furness peninsula and southwards to the river Mersey; this was the historic county. In 1974 the Furness peninsula was taken into Cumbria, Greater Manchester was created with 10 boroughs and Merseyside was created with 6 boroughs. ‘New’ Lancashire now comprises 14 boroughs. When recording historic gardens we find that they may fall in any of these districts. The topography is very diverse. The Pennine chain of hills forms the eastern boundary, fertile river valleys lie to the north whilst in the west are reclaimed mossland and coastal dunes. The manufacturing towns in the south of the county, lying on deep coal seams, made an important contribution to Britain’s Industrial Revolution; the wealth thus created helped to build the many public parks for which the county is noted. Its war memorial parks are of especial range and quality, and formed the subject of our research project in 2017, War Memorial Parks and Gardens in Lancashire.