Rivington Terraced Gardens Conservation Project

Year 10 pupils in the Boys' Division help with conservation work at Rivington Terraced Gardens.

Aims

The Rivington Heritage Trust (RHT) and Groundwork Cheshire, Lancashire and Merseyside are working to conserve and restore the historic Rivington Terraced Gardens and need help from volunteers.

Year 10 pupils in the Boys' Division have helped with this work by clearing steps, cutting back vegetation and completing many other tasks to help to improve public access and maintain the views that were once visible from the pathways.

Background

RHT began a process of seeking Heritage Lottery funding to help them to conserve the famous Rivington Terraced Gardens, built by Lord Leverhulme around his Rivington residence.

As Lord Leverhulme was responsible for re-founding the School in 1915, creating the Bolton School Foundation as it exists today, this was a fantastic opportunity to make a connection between the School and the Gardens. By helping to look after the Terraced Gardens for the benefit of future generations, the boys who are beneficiaries of Leverhulme’s legacy are able to better understand his connection to the local area.

Resources

Flexibility in the timetable is required to allow pupils in Year 10 to visit the Rivington Terraced Gardens bi-weekly for a whole afternoon (departing School at 1pm and returning for 4pm). This has been arranged as part of the SPACE Programme: an effort at Bolton School Boys' Division to broaden boys' experiences beyond curriculum requirements by timetabling an afternoon of enrichment activities. For Year 10 pupils, this includes Community Action such as working at Rivington Terraced Gardens.

Impact

The Project Manager for the Rivington Terraced Gardens said of Bolton School boys’ efforts:

“It’s already made an enormous impact in terms of the amount of light and air circulation in the area. This sort of task is really important for the Gardens – there’s no worse enemy to historic structures than damp, and clearances like this will allow the stonework to dry out and ‘breathe’ as it was designed to. It’s also bringing some lines of sight back into that area so that visitors can begin to appreciate the structures as they were planned once more.”

Pupil Involvement

Groups of pupils in Year 10 are involved with the project on a rota.