Bispham Rock Gardens, also known as Devonshire Road Rock Gardens or the Rock Gardens, is a municipal park located in

Bispham, Blackpool Bispham is a village on the Fylde coast in Lancashire, England, a mile and a half north of Blackpool town centre. Geography and administration The village is part of the borough of Blackpool, and generally considered a suburb of the town. To ...

on the

Fylde coast The Fylde () is a coastal plain in western Lancashire, England. It is roughly a square-shaped peninsula, bounded by Morecambe Bay to the north, the Ribble estuary to the south, the Irish Sea to the west, and the foot of the Bowland hills to ...

in Lancashire, England. The gardens are an important wildlife resource and contains a number of rare species. The main entrance to the gardens is at the top of Knowle Hill on Devonshire Road. Built upon the site of ''Beryl Hill'' (A

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foo ...

name meaning ''Hill, Hill, Hill'') which allegedly was the site of a

cairn A cairn is a man-made pile (or stack) of stones raised for a purpose, usually as a marker or as a burial mound. The word ''cairn'' comes from the gd, càrn (plural ). Cairns have been and are used for a broad variety of purposes. In prehi ...

and a beacon to warn of a Napoleonic invasionhttp://www.blackpool.gov.uk/News/2009/Jul/HistoryofRockGardenscanyouhelp.htm The gardens run downhill toward Inver Road. Views from the top of the gardens can be seen toward

Pendle Hill Pendle Hill is in the east of Lancashire, England, near the towns of Burnley, Nelson, Colne, Brierfield, Clitheroe and Padiham. Its summit is above mean sea level. It gives its name to the Borough of Pendle. It is an isolated hill in the ...

, Beacon Fell and the

Bowland fells Bowland at its most general most often refers to: * Forest of Bowland, an area of barren gritstone fells, deep valleys and peat moorland, mostly in north-east Lancashire, England, with a small part in Yorkshire * Trough of Bowland, a valley and hig ...

History

The gardens were founded in the early 1900s, and were opened to the public in 1925. Over the years the gardens fell into disrepair, were vandalised and used less and less by local residents. In 2002 the ''Friends of the Rock Gardens'' was formed to improve community access and use of the park; and to restore the park's amenities. The park has been regularly used for many years as a setting for

wedding photography Wedding photography is a specialty in photography that is primarily focused on the photography of events and activities relating to weddings. It may include other types of portrait photography of the couple before the official wedding day, suc ...

Gardens renovation

The Friends group has held fund raising events such as an ''Easter Extravaganza'' and a Teddy Bears' Picnic Fun Day, the first of which was held on 31 July 2007 and attracted about 300 people with Guests of Honour being the Mayor of Blackpool, Robert Wynne, and the area's MP, Joan Humble. The

Heritage Lottery Fund The National Lottery Heritage Fund, formerly the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF), distributes a share of National Lottery funding, supporting a wide range of heritage projects across the United Kingdom. History The fund's predecessor bodies were ...

gave a grant of £20,000 in May 2006 to help restore the gardens which received a major revamp with the creation of an educational woodland walk and

butterfly Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group compris ...

habitat. The Friends group forged links with local schools who use the park for outdoor projects such as mini-beast and pond studies. Also the

Lancashire Wildlife Trust The Lancashire Wildlife Trust or Wildlife Trust for Lancashire, Manchester and North Merseyside is a wildlife trust covering the county of Lancashire and parts of Greater Manchester and Merseyside in England. It includes all of the ceremonial cou ...

is monitoring the rare

white-letter hairstreak The white-letter hairstreak (''Satyrium w-album'') is a butterfly in the family Lycaenidae. Appearance and behaviour A dark little butterfly that spends the majority of its life in the tree tops, feeding on honeydew (secretion), honeydew, making ...

butterfly which lives in the gardens. The Woodland Walk is designed to include a story telling ring, disabled friendly winding paths, a sculpture display area and

mosaic A mosaic is a pattern or image made of small regular or irregular pieces of colored stone, glass or ceramic, held in place by plaster/mortar, and covering a surface. Mosaics are often used as floor and wall decoration, and were particularly pop ...

s. In November 2007 contractors started a project to completely re-lay the gardens paths. The project cost £57,000 with funding coming from various sources, including Blackpool Borough Council, the local area forum and local firms. The project also received a £39,000 grant from The Veolia Environmental Trust under the Landfill Communities Fund. The work on the paths makes them disabled friendly. Also included in the project is a new enclosed "hilly" landscape to provide runners with a challenging workout and grassed paths for light walks.

References

External links

Blackpool Borough Council website
{{Blackpool geography Tourist attractions in Blackpool Geography of Blackpool Parks and commons in Blackpool

History

Gardens renovation

See also

References

External links