No one has really touched this site for over a hundred years.
Having a project of this size and this dimension and
magnitude it's just phenomenal.
We have been looking for a fifth garden for quite a long while
and when this appeared firstly, it really
looked quite interesting it was the right sort of size
it was in a fascinating area of the
UK which we hadn't actually been
involved with, the northwest.
We've been looking all through the country we
visited about 20 sites, then we got
the phone call and magically it just
seemed to be everything that we were
looking for with a team that were amazing
to work with and so its proved to be.
We've had several opportunities with this site
over the years and we heard through our
other director Peter Nears picked up
that the RHS were actually looking for a
sight, potentially the north maybe the northwest.
I think with it was really a piece of magic that they came up with
and let's have a word with people that
know best about gardens so that's why they
came to us.
We thought that there'd be nothing quite like this, that once we got
them showed them the garden, talked
about the history that it would be irresistible.
There's a defining moment
to Manchester and have a look at
this site Worseley New Hall and I was so
excited when I actually came in through
the old wrought iron gate and say well
what this is a great big aladin's cave
waiting to be searched.
if you see the middle wood, we see
beyond historic terraces, we see the
pasture going down towards the
Bridgewater canal and all of those
collectively it's just a sight to behold
What we were really looking for was a
garden that we could bring to an area
that didn't have an amazing garden of
whether it was an RHS garden or anyone
else of real depth of horticulture where
we could teach about gardening where we
could do science activity where we could
have community outreach adventures here
and engage with the local people.
The big ticket thing is it just creates another
fantastic destination for Greater Manchester,
very much supported by
Sir Howard Bernstein the Chief executive
Manchester as well as Salford and others
and once we spoke to colleagues they were
just thrilled and really wanted to get involved.
This is a site which deserves
to be redeveloped, that focus on
horticulture on environment is such an
important aspect for this area.
Whether people want to be volunteers whether
it's school children whether it's people
who look for a training opportunity in
the horticultural sector then I think
there really will be a massive amount of interest.
All gardens are very different, you can't say that this is will have the RHS stamp on it of course it will to some extent
but at the same time it'll be different
it'll be a northwest it will be a Manchester it will be a Salford garden.
And I know I'm biased as a northerner
but surrounded by wonderful northerners
it just couldn't be more perfect
it really is everything we were looking for
fifth garden is something that's been
talked about for years and
now we can actually deliver this which is fantastic.