Trentham Gardens are formal Italianate gardens, and an English landscape park in Trentham, Staffordshire on the southern fringes of the city of Stoke-on-Trent, England. The former house on the site, Trentham Hall, became one of many to be demolished in the 20th century when in 1912, its owner the 4th Duke of Sutherland razed it to the ground. However, the gardens and the park with its lake and woodlands have been preserved. One of the reasons for the demolition of the house was pollution of the River Trent, which flows through the grounds. The pollution causing pottery industry has long gone and there are now kingfishers in the grounds.
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The gardens and park at Trentham currently cover some 300 acres (1.2 km²). They were designed as a serpentine park by Capability Brown from 1758 onwards, overlying an earlier formal design attributed to Charles Bridgeman. However, in the twentieth century Trentham Gardens was principally known for the surviving formal gardens laid out in the 1840s by Sir Charles Barry, who also created Italianate gardens at Harewood House and Cliveden.
The gardens were the site of the Trentham Ballroom, which opened in 1931 and closed in 2002. Many dance, rock and pop bands performed at Trentham Ballroom, including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who and Led Zeppelin. The Ballroom also hosted degree ceremonies for North Staffordshire Polytechnic. Before the re-opening of the Trentham Estate many ideas were put forward, including the construction of a theme park, however this was quickly rejected by residents and the planning authority.
The Trentham estate is undergoing a major £120-million ($200m) redevelopment by St Modwen Properties plc as a leisure destination called "The Trentham Estate".
The project at Trentham includes restoration of the Italian gardens and woodlands, and creation of a garden centre. The aim is to avoid noisy theme park-like attractions, and instead to offer "authentic experiences" to older people and younger children. Recently a monkey forest, the first of its kind in England, has opened. Visitors can roam through the park where 140 Barbary Macaque monkeys wander free in the woodlands. There are no fences in place to stop the monkeys from interacting with the visitors, although it is against park rules to touch the animals and wardens are on standby to ensure the safety of the visitors.
In December 2008 a Giant Observation Wheel was opened on site for tourists to get an overhead view of the attractions in the complex and around the city.[1] It later closed and was dismantled in 2009.
An Augustinian Priory occupied the Trentham estate from the 11th century until the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The property was sold in 1540 to James Leveson of Perton Hall, near Wolverhampton. The Leveson family occupied the property and Sir Richard Leveson built a new house in 1634. The Leveson heiress Frances married Sir Thomas Gower Bt leading to the creation of the Leveson Gower family. Their son Sir William Leveson Gower built a new house on the site in 1690. Henry Holland altered the house in 1775-78.
As for the former days of the last Trentham Hall built in the 1830s, William White wrote 1851: "Trentham Hall is the principal residence of the Most Noble George Granville Leveson Gower, Duke of Sutherland, Marquess of Stafford, Earl Gower, Viscount Trentham, and Hereditary Sheriff of Sutherland. It is an elegant mansion, situated near the village in a park of 500 acres (2 km²). It has been entirely rebuilt during the last 14 years, and now has an elegant stone front and a lofty square tower. The late hall was erected about 120 years ago, after the model of Buckingham House, in St. James's Park, but it was considerably altered and improved by the first Marquess of Stafford, from designs by Henry Holland, who gave a new and imposing feature to the whole. The present mansion is on a larger and more magnificent plan and the gardens rank amongst the finest in England." (History, Gazetteer and Directory of Staffordshire, Sheffield, 1851). The remodelling was also the work of Sir Charles Barry. The complete Palace was later demolished in 1912 due to uncontrolled urban growth nearby.
There are plans to rebuild Trentham Hall as a five star hotel.