Rivington Gardens, Bolton, England

The following is from the English Heritage Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Gardens and pleasure grounds designed by Thomas Hayton Mawson in collaboration with William Hesketh Lever, later first Viscount Leverhulme.

LOCATION, AREA, BOUNDARIES, LANDFORM, SETTING

The roughly 18 hectare gardens are situated about 1.2 kilometres east of Rivington on steeply sloping land which rises to over 310 metres above sea level and overlooks Lever Park and the reservoirs in the valley to the west. The land to the south and east of the site is open moorland which rises to the east and north-east. An eminence about 300 metres south-east of the gardens is the site of Rivington Pike Tower (1733, listed grade II) which is a prominent local landmark. The land drops away to both north and south and open moorland merges into fenced agricultural land. The boundary is formed by Belmont Road on the east side, a path between the gardens and the open moor on the south side and by fencing between the gardens and agricultural land on the west side. The boundary on the north side is formed by a building called the Pigeon Tower and attached steps and pavilions at the north-east corner, and the edge of woodland for the remainder of the boundary, except at the north-west corner where there is fencing.

REFERENCES Used by English Heritage

C J Holme, Gardens of England in the Northern Counties (1911), plates 24-5

T H Mawson, The Art and Craft of Garden Making (4th edition 1912), (quoted in Cobham Resource Consultants)

N Pevsner, The Buildings of England: North Lancashire (1969), p 210

M D Smith, Leverhulme's Rivington (1984)

Lever Park: A Strategic Review, (Cobham Resource Consultants no date, around 1989)

Lever Park Management Plan, (Pauline Roscoe Associates 1996)

Maps

T H Mawson, Mountain Home and Garden, Rivington, Lancs, 1912 (reproduced in Cobham Resource Consultants)

OS 6" to 1 mile: 1st edition surveyed 1845-7; 1929 edition with additions 1938

Description written: June 1997

Edited: March 1999