RHS Garden Bridgewater
Large purpose‐built visitor centre with designed art‐gardens
Where?
Get there
- Public Transport
Bus, 1/2 mile - Private Transport
Huge carpark - All days, 9–6, £13
- (times/price are a guide only)
Public Transport: use the buses along Leigh Rd. Buses that seem to go nearby (Worsely) are a long trip then nasty walk. Despite footpaths, the access road is currently only passable—a bare slope downwards. Price is for non‐RHS member garden entrance—the building and garden centre are free.
Review
Bridgewater opened in 2022, and is a carpark with a spacious, light‐filled modern building housing a shop, cafe, garden centre and planted areas. I visited after the virus year, in winter. The path/bridge/stream feature was worth the entry, so was the restoration of the large walled garden. Call me insensitive—all the rest looked like an army battalion had rolled through. Reasons to go: the cafe is large, light, and serves food like vegetable soup, ground coffee, scones/cream and roast lamb. It’s popular. Also, the garden centre has unusual types and quality of plants. When the gardens mature they will be prestige. But Bridgewater is a specialist place, if outstanding in it’s specialism of gardens and craft‐cafe. There’s nothing nearby aside from a vacant stretch of the Bridgewater Canal. You’ll probably know if you want to visit—if you want to visit, there will be no substitute.