RHS Garden Bridgewater is a modern garden rooted in a historic setting in Salford, part of greater Manchester, England. It is one of five gardens owned by the UK Royal Horticulture Society who also put on the Chelsea Flower Show in London each spring. P and I attended that Show this year and I previously did a diary on our visit.
We stayed in Darley Dale for four nights during our month travels. This location was chosen for genealogy purposes where we both truly loved its picturesque setting and historic stone buildings on the River Derwent within the Peak District National Park. One day, I suggested traveling to Manchester to visit the Bridgewater Garden that morning while P chose to visit the Beatles Museums in Liverpool that afternoon.
It was fantastic that if you arrived car-free to the Gardens, you received 30% off the admission price. Since Sir GUG was now a card carrying member of the Royal Horticultural Society, P and I were admitted free plus we had a $5 gift card that we used for coffees.
Entrance
Map of RHS Garden Bridgewater
We stayed in the gardens on the left hand side of the map as we regretfully didn’t have enough time to visit the longer paths to the right. As I said we spent a month in the UK and while visiting this particular garden, it was really the only day that we saw light showers but it didn’t take away from our enjoyment. The UK was extremely dry during our visit there which was great for tourists but not for anyone else. So let’s get started.
Dark clouds on the horizon
One of the first things we noticed were volunteers in purple shirts working with plants. The lady standing up wearing the brown sweatshirt was a garden employee overseeing them. If you notice she is holding what appears to be switches in her far right hand to keep any renegade volunteers in line.
These gardens very much include community involvement. Various local groups grow gardens here plus they have gardens for children to oversee.
Insect house
No matter which direction we turned, there were paths leading to more gardens.
There were chairs and benches everywhere for people to use. (I didn’t push my luck as P really wanted to see the Beatle Museums so I marched on)
This guy gave me a thrill when it ran out from under some plants that I was standing next to. I believe he was a ring-necked pheasant. Later we saw plenty of them around in the gardens. I love the deep red stalks on the plant. Perhaps Swiss Chard?
This lonely bench tauntingly called out my name to please come sit for a spell. I struggled to ignore it.
Bench made from wood found on the property
There were lots of signs around the gardens. FINALLY I learned that something likes to eat stinging nettle. MeadowMist and I need to go in halvers to order some Peacock Butterfly larvae.
The Europe and Asian Peacock Butterfly Attribution: wikipedia
I would really like to have that black plant whatever it is on the upper left.
There were lots of water features.
The light shower caught up with us as you can see below on the water surface.
There were some nearby greenhouses to ride out the fast moving shower.
So the ponds were our last stop before leaving
As we were leaving, P needed to use the restroom. The gardens have hundreds of visitors at a time but there were no urinals in the men’s room yet around 20 stalls. As P exited the restroom, I was holding our coffees and asked him what happened to our bag with the souvenirs. He had left it in the stall. I went in with him to try and locate it. I know we appeared very suspicious parked in front of the sinks drinking coffees and investigating each man as they exited a stall. lol You could not see under the doors. We finally narrowed it down to two left. After quite a wait, an elderly Asian man exited a stall with the bag. We both walked up to him and although he appeared surprised he asked if this was ours. Mission accomplished.
This was truly an incredible garden and even P throughly enjoyed it.
So off we went to Liverpool to visit the Beatle Museums or so we thought. This was on May 26th. We got stuck in very heavy traffic on the interstate between Manchester and Liverpool thinking maybe a serious accident ahead. To travel the remaining ten or so miles into the City took us almost three hours! Then we get into Liverpool where it seemed almost every road was closed. Finally making it down to the waterfront where the museums are located, we got stuck in traffic again. I rolled down the window to ask a policewoman how we can get over to the museums, she apologized and said they were closed for the day. I guess due to my stunned wide-eyed look and detecting my accent, she continued saying that over 1.5 million people were expected into the City for the Liverpool Football Victory Parade having won the English Premier League Soccer Title the night before. We decided to leave the City inch by inch and actually drove on a block of Water Street where tragedy later struck. If you recall a man drove purposely through pedestrians on Water Street injuring over 130 people with over fifty taken to local hospitals. Here is the Wikipedia link — en.wikipedia.org/…
After our approximately six/seven hour detour, it was great to get back into the Darley Dale area where we were again greeted with another light shower.
Matlock Dale
It turned out to be quite a day to remember in several different ways.
I will also do a diary in the future on Chatsworth House’s gardens and grounds. They were spectacular and it was where the film Pride & Prejudice was shot. I can also do the Scotland Highlands.
While in Darley Dale we also visited this 2,000 old yew tree that I hugged and kissed as it was part of the reason for visiting there. (Yes, I have always been a certified tree hugger) The tree stands next to a Church c.1200 where my surname ancestors worshipped and married as far back as I have them in the late 1500s; participating in DNA studies helped with this! It was almost spiritual being there. I’ll do a diary on it one day but not in SMGB. P and I attended a Church service there and afterwards a small miracle took place which I’ll share in the diary. I still get chill bumps thinking about it as it was something that I had been wishing for months to take place but had already given up. I don’t want to leave you hanging so a hint is that it’s someone I met.
2,000 year old yew tree
Wishing you a great weekend. It’s currently 67 degrees here and sunny. So what’s up with y’all?
Comments are closed.