Welcome

We are the Friends of Ashton Gardens, a voluntary not-for-profit,  membership-based,  group dedicated to protecting preserving and enhancing Ashton Gardens in Saint Annes on the Sea, Lancashire, England.

Our members come from a wide range of locations - not just in St Annes, but throughout the world.  We are a friendly and welcoming group, sharing a common aim.   Membership is open to all.

Lord Ashton of Lancaster paid for the Ashton Gardens as a gift for the people of Saint Anne's, and they are named in his honour. They are within a conservation area and listed in the Grade II division of the National Register of Historic Parks and Gardens.  More recently additional protection has been sought by our action to have them designated as charity land.

They retain most of their original features and were originally designed and laid out by Edward Thomas of Hopton in Shropshire. In 1914 the local Council took them over and commissioned a design by Fred Harrison of  St. Annes who had an architectural practice in Manchester. However, his design was not implemented, and the gardens were partially re-landscaped by Pulham and Sons of London from 1914 to 1916 and the structural work was undertaken by the Council's Surveyor: J Stanley Sawdon.

In 2010 they were restored and re-vamped again following the Council's receipt of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, and in 2012 our group, with the aid of a generous grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund undertook the restoration of the monument to Lord Ashton's generosity in the Rose garden.

The gardens are  representative  of their period, and widely cherished by the local community.