The restored Rochdale Memorial Gardens provide quality public green space in the heart of Rochdale town centre. They have many significant features, including formal gardens, sensory gardens and a popular children’s play area.
The gardens provide an oasis of calm in the midst of a busy urban landscape and a link between the listed Victorian Town Hall, Touchstones Rochdale, Hopwood Hall College campus and the main commercial centre.
Commissioned in 1948, they incorporate an impressive Cenotaph. The decline of recent years has been reversed through the re-introduction of quality horticultural features, including new flowerbeds, wildlife planting areas, and improvements to paved surfaces, benches and lighting.
A play area has also been created on the western side of the gardens and was designed to fit in with the original purpose and layout.
With the help of local schoolchildren, an orchard has been planted. The sunken rose gardens have been restored and rose beds replanted.