Making of Bridgewater

Marcus Chilton-Jones, curator of the new RHS Garden Bridgewater to help raise money for local charity’s “Schools into Gardening” programme
Marcus Chilton-Jones, curator of the new RHS Garden Bridgewater, gives a talk on the “Making of Bridgewater” at the Leicestershire and Rutland Gardens Trust annual Lecture on 8th September, 7.30pm at Leicester University. All proceeds from the lecture go to support local schools, through the Trust’s “Schools into Gardening” programme. Tickets are on sale now, to book visit our website: www.lrgt.org
Join us for an evening as we host our annual lecture with guest speaker Marcus Chilton-Jones MA, Curator of RHS Garden Bridgewater. Marcus will deliver a lecture on the restoration of RHS Garden Bridgewater, one of the largest gardening projects undertaken in Europe in recent years. This lecture will give audiences the chance to hear more about the transformation of this 154-acre green space that embrace the site’s heritage and enriches the lives of local communities and protects the environment for the future.
About RHS 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.
Bridgewater Gardens has been created in 154 acres (62 ha) 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 is one of Europe’s largest gardening projects.
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 has been appointed the first curator of the garden.
The expected total cost of the project was £32.7m, of which the RHS invested £15.7m of its own funds and received (by December 2019) a further £12.7m through grants and fundraising, including a £5m grant from the Garfield Weston Foundation and further donations from Salford City Council.
About Marcus:
Marcus Chilton-Jones started in the new role of Curator of RHS Garden Bridgewater in January 2017. He joined the project from the Dorothy Clive Garden in North Staffordshire, where he worked as Curator for eight years.
After finishing his apprenticeship he worked on a restoration project at Morden Hall Park in southwest London; restored orchards, rose gardens and lots of features around the historic mansion. He then moved on to Berryfields [former location of BBC Gardeners’ World] which involved setting everything up from scratch: a glasshouse, kitchen garden, borders… but on quite a small scale: it was a TV set if you like, a couple of acres.
His largest restorative (or re-creative) job was at Trentham, where the Italian Gardens cover about 10 acres – the Walled Gardens at RHS Bridgewater cover about 11 acres – so they’re quite similar in terms of scale and what needs to be accomplished.
The Leicestershire and Rutland Gardens Trust is a voluntary organisation and a registered charity. The Trust brings together people from all walks of life who are devoted to protecting our landscape, parks and gardens giving their members the opportunity to learn more about garden heritage and how to protect it for future generations.
The “Schools into Gardening” programme has been running for over thirteen years and has enabled the trust to provide financial support to gardening projects in several local schools. This year the Trust has committed grants more than £1500, including work with Millgate School Leicester and a student award at Brooksby College. All profits from the talk will go to our “Schools into Gardening Project”.