Wentworth Garden Centre

A  large part of Wentworth Garden Centre occupies the site of the great former kitchen garden complex built in the late 18th Century by the Fitzwilliams of Wentworth Woodhouse.

The foundations for the surrounding walls were started in 1786. The North and South facing walls are ‘hot’ walls  (they once contained heated flues). Glasshouses erected against these walls would have supplied the finest and most delicate fruit such as peaches, pineapples and apricots.

The gardens were subsequently developed with the planting of orchards, ornamental and herb gardens. Further features were added early this century by Maud, Countess Fitzwilliam (d.1967) wife of the 9th Earl with the creation of the beautiful Rock garden.

Inevitably, much of the cultivated area fell into disrepair, until the creation of the garden centre in 1976. The gardens are being substantially and faithfully restored by ourselves as part of an ongoing process. Recent projects to be completed are the replanting of the maze which was ‘grubbed out’ shortly after the Second World War, the creation of a deer paddock complete with fallow deer, planting and re-instating the pools and cascade in the Rock Gardens.

Several unusual features are to be found in the gardens including:

The Bear Pit – often mistaken for an ‘ice house’, the chamber has contained bears within living memory.

The Duck Houses – dating back well into the Victorian period which housed many ornamental varieties including Pintail, Widgeon, Teal and Black Swans.

The Header Tank – a huge oval water reservoir storing water pumped from Home Farm pond which was then diverted through a series of valves to the cascades in the Rock Garden.

The Garden Centre’s gardens are part of the Gardens of South Yorkshire, a group of nine gardens across South Yorkshire who support each other.

The gardens are open year round 10:00am – 4:30pm (subject to the weather)

Admission Prices