Who We Are
Gary Pretty - Chairman
Barbara Wright - Secretary
Sarah Burgess - Treasurer
Chris Wright - Officer
Mike Sutcliffe - Plant Expert

How to join

Contact Gary Pretty at
Hesketh Hotel
51-53 Hesketh Ave.

heskethhotel@hotmail.com

 

The gardens were founded in the early 1900's, and were opened to the public in 1925. Over the years the gardens fell into disrepair, were vandalised and were 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 also to restore the park's amenities.

The Friends group have 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.

The Friends group has forged links with local schools who use the park for outdoor projects such as mini-beast and pond studies and school children have been involved with planting large areas with bluebells.

The Woodland Walk has been designed to include a story telling ring, disabled friendly winding paths, a sculpture display area and mosaics.This project was funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund. In the woodland walk you can see butterflies, squirrels and an array of different birds and many plants, trees and ferns.

^{In November 2007 contractors started a project to completely relay the gardens paths.The work on the paths now also makes them disabled friendly.}