NESS GARDENS' centenary celebrations continue when the Philharmonic Concert Orchestra holds an open air concert this coming Saturday, June 13. The wonderful backdrop will be the Dee Estuary and the Welsh mountains.

The world-famous botanic gardens are well worth a visit but how many readers know they grew up in New Brighton?

Ness Gardens were founded by a colourful character named Arthur Bulley. West Kirby author Brenda McLean tells the story of a 'Pioneering Plantsman' in a hardback book costing £29. It may seem expensive, but the book makes excellent reading and is to be recommended as it turns out to be quite an adventure story!

It starts in the mid 1840s when a Mr and Mrs S Bulley moved from slum-ridden Liverpool to New Brighton, which was then a fashionable place to live. The cotton trade was providing a good living for the young Bulley family and New Brighton was the place to live for prosperous middle class folk. It boasted splendid villas built on sandstone cliffs with beautiful views of Liverpool Bay and sailing ships coming into port.

They moved into Montpellier Crescent, one of the first roads built, where some of the original buildings remain, but Gables, Arthur Bulley's home for over 20 years, has made way for retirement flats.

His first home, Montpellier Lodge, has gone, too. Baby Bulley was born in 1861, the 13th child, and the household had 22 people in it, including servants.

Bulley's parents lived in Montpellier all their lives, but when Arthur was five they moved into a new villa called Gables.

Arthur Bulley remained in this house, working as a cotton saleman, and lived there for over 20 years until after his widowed mother's death. However, his love for plants and gardens must have grown up during this period in Montpellier Crescent, as the family hosted several garden parties. Arthur's elder sister Ella also loved wild flowers, worms and insects. She married a local church minister, who also loved flowers. In the Bulley family there were other keen gardeners.

Early in his marriage, Bulley lived in West Kirby, joining Liverpool Naturalists' Field Club and his global quest for flowers and plants really took off. A hundred years ago they bought land in Ness, built a house, and Ness Gardens resulted. The seeds of an idea for the botanic gardens were planted in Arthur's young mind as a child in Montpellier Crescent.

Converted for the new archive on 13 March 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.