Hi excellent pictures, I have only just signed up for this forum and it’s a bit of a coincidence as I was up there a few hours ago.
The Japanese gardens, Rivington is a wonderful place, I live about 10 minutes from there and I really should get up there more with my camera, it’s such a shame the way it has just been left to decay after lord Leverhulme gave the land to the ‘people of Bolton’ I went to school literally 5 minutes walk from the gardens and we did projects on lord lever and his estate so I as I saw some questions about the place I dug out my old work and thought I would share it with you.
Roynton cottage the first bungalow was built around 1900, for lord lever, in 1901 and major work went on changing the layout and gardens for some years. But in 1913 a supporter of the suffragette movement burnt the place down, from looking at the pictures there wasn’t much left apart from the chimneys as a lot of the house was built using wood. Within a year lord Leverhulme was back living in the bungalow. This time it was built out of stone and over the next 12 years lord Leverhulme altered the place on many occasions including adding a second story to the bungalow and in 1920 a ballroom. After his death in 1925 a man called john Magee bought the bungalow intending to use it as a weekend retreat for his family who lived in Bolton. He reduced the gardening staff to a mere 5 and the gardens were never restored fully, Eventually the family did use the bungalow much more than a weekend retreat but after john Magee’s death his son put it up for sale. Around 1939 the Liverpool waterworks corporation bought the land for £3000 and during the years of the war it was used to house soldiers, it seems that the soldiers left the place in such a mess that by 1947 the corporation decided to demolish the bungalow. It was no easy task, the ballroom ceiling didn’t even collapse through explosives so it had to be sledge hammered down! Once the building was demolished many of the plants and ornaments of the gardens were stolen and everything started to become overgrown. Anyone who has been there will be able to note where the bungalow was as you can still see the black and white tiles where the toilets once stood by the ballroom, you can also see many summer houses dotted around the grounds but they are all barred up now so you can’t go in them.
As for the Japanese gardens there aren’t many words to describe what it used to look like apart from truly amazing!!! It is such a shame that they are in the rundown state they are today. As I said I think the whole area was given to the people of Bolton and I understand that there isn’t much money for looking after these sorts of places nowadays but it is so heartbreaking looking at pictures of the gardens in their former glory and comparing them to now. I have a book on the estate with some incredible pictures and you really wouldn’t believe the way the gardens looked.
Check out some of my pictures from January in the snow
As devonian42 said the park is miles bigger than just the gardens and one place I would definitely recommend is the Liverpool castle which was also built by lord Leverhulme but when he died it was halted and now stands in ruins.
Here are some pictures of Liverpool castle
Just realised I have really rambled on there hope this all interests you and let me know if you need any other information about the area
