About
A sandy beach and clear blue sea waters are not all that Weymouth’s seafront has to boast about. The award winning Greenhill Gardens with its brightly coloured borders, winding paths and its floral clock are a true delight to discover.
Situated at the edge of the town centre, sloping up from the beach and promenade, the gardens provide some of the best views across Weymouth Bay and can be enjoyed for a multitude of reasons be it to sit back and relax, to have fun on the putting green or to get active on the tennis courts.
Greenhill Gardens has been recognised as one of the best green spaces in the country by being awarded Green Flag status based on how safe, clean, accessible, well managed and welcoming they are. The Green Flag Award scheme is the national standard for parks and green spaces across England and Wales. The award recognises the value of green spaces in communities and is held by the best parks and gardens in the UK.
FACILITIES
Cafes
Jurassic Rocks Cafe is an indoor café with fantastic views of Weymouth Bay serving breakfast, lunches, and evening steak meals. The cafe is open year-round. Call 01305 561877
The Seascape cafe at the entrance to the gardens has a terrace where tables and chairs are set out during the summer for customers. A new wooden gazebo is due to be erected in the near future. For more details, please call 01305 773536.
18-Hole putting green and tennis courts
An 18-hole putting green and 4 tennis courts are summer time attractions used by residents and visitors to the town. A putting and tennis attendant service is operated from June through to October. Tennis courts are open to the public free of charge in the winter.
Bowling green
A bowling green and pavilion is run by Greenhill Bowling Club and is situated at the rear of the tennis courts. For more details, please tel. 01305 784268.
Toilets
The public toilets are adjacent to the bowling green pavilion and are open all year round. For security purposes, the toilets are closed at night.
Accessibility
Lower and upper entrances near the cafe or town end of the gardens are wheelchair accessible. Some paths in the gardens are steep or uneven.
Cycling
Cycling is not permitted in our pleasure gardens including Greenhill Gardens.
Bennett’s Shelter
Bennett’s Shelter was a benevolent donation made by Mayor V H Bennett and was constructed after 1919. The original shelter had lower wooden sections that have since been replaced by Portland stone walling. The upper timber structure and tiled roof are essentially in its original form and it continues to provide shelter to today’s visitors.
The Schneider Trophy weathervane
The Schneider Trophy weathervane is a memorial to a former Weymouth College student, Lieutenant George Stainforth, who set a world record air speed in a Schneider Supermarine S6B seaplane in 1931. The weathervane has been in the gardens since May 1952 and was restored in 1999 by a local marine engineer.
Floral clock
In 1936 one of the most popular features of the gardens, the floral clock with its cuckoo type chime, was built by Ritchie & Sons of Edinburgh. It has an adjacent clock house, which holds the original mechanism that keeps the clock ticking.
Wishing well
In the late 1980’s a ‘wishing well’, donated by Melcombe Regis Rotary Club, was introduced into the lower gardens; to this day any monies thrown into the well are collected and presented to a local charity.
Floral bedding design
Each year a large crescent shaped bed is given over to a charity or organisation who is celebrating a significant anniversary. Our gardeners painstakingly plant out thousands of tiny bedding plants and where necessary, use coloured gravel to replicate the selected organisation’s logo.
The 2018 carpet bedding display marked the centenary of the Royal Air Force, formed in 1918, using bedding plants and coloured gravel to form their logo.
This year’s carpet bedding display has been dedicated to Louviers town in France to represent the twinning between towns in September 1958, which was ratified in Weymouth in April 1959. The bedding will be planted in June 2019.
For information on how to get your charitable organisation considered for the floral bedding design, please contact the Parks and Open Spaces Manager.
