Trentham Gardens

Great place to go for lunch — pleasant walk around the lake to the café. Prefect spot outside on a sunny day!
Take my Nan here most Tuesday’s. The staff are really friendly and the food is really good.
My favourite is the cheese and bacon staffordshire oatcakes (like savoury pancakes). Although everything else is good too.

Excellent place to wander and get the kids to burn off energy. Has play areas, café’s and a monkey Forrest which is spectacular. Downside is the parking can be difficult as it’s a popular place. If you plan to use vouchers to get in phone first in case they have an event on — if they do you can’t use your vouchers.

Love the whole experience. Stores are unique. Gardens are beautiful no matter what time of year you visit. Garden centre is full of great merchandise and the food on offer there is really good! Things to enjoy whatever your age!

very nice place to walk around & enjoy the scenery but some of the stores are overpriced for the quality. some shops up there need to expand into the city centre more

If you’ve never been to Trentham Gardens before, you won’t know there’s 4 main parts to it: The Gardens, The Shopping Centre, the walk around the lake, which skims The Monkey Forest border. The Monkey Forest is £6 for adults and £4.50 for children. The shopping centre is free as long as you don’t buy! And the walk around the lake was free, and living 15 minutes or so drive away, I used to visit every other week to stretch the legs with friends. It’s now £5 for adults or £3.50 for children to do the walk– the same walk, no improvements or changes that I’ve seen– but with this price you also get access to the Gardens (which were always charged), open 9am-​4pm.
Now I do enjoy gardening as a hobby and visiting gardens mainly National Trust and touristy ones, I can spend a day just wandering round, taking photos and making notes and sketches. Trentham faired well with these attractions, but I’m a bit sore about paying for a walk that was free– in my opinion the gardens are worth visiting 4 times a year only to see the changes, and I can no longer justify going every other week to pay for the walk, so have found alternatives.
I was impressed to learn that Capability Brown had a hand in designing the landscape in the mid 1700s. You enter the gardens across a pretty bridge which is built across a river. Trenthams Gardens are formal style, Italinate, with a main walk, bordered by mixed perennial planting which means it’s worth visiting once in each season to appreciate its full cycle. At the end of the main walk is a lovely view across the lake, with it’s islands, you can see the walk (that was free).
To the left a pretty prairie area has been planted, best enjoyed in summer. To the right are several show gardens (some designed locally, a rather nice tropical themed one, and an eco one…), access to the lake walk an the trees surrounding it, and a children’s play area. The play area was great fun for my 11 year old cousin, it’s one of the chunky log style ones, with monkey bars, giant tyre swing, assault course, normal swings and slide.
In took me (my camera and notebook) a morning to go round everything the first time, including an hour in the play area with my cousin. The other 3 times I’ve been it’s only taken 2 hours, and all I felt I gained was seeing the cycle of the planting– most impressive in my opinion was the contrast of colour and texture between the outside borders grasses and sedums. I took my parents who are not in any way interested in gardening, but enjoy a walk– they preferred the lake walk to the actual garden area. So that leads me to conclude that if you’re interested in gardening– go for a visit, best in Summer if you want to see the prarie and show gardens at their best, and if you like near enough, try and go once each season to see the changes. If you’re not interested in gardening– the walk is good around the lake, but not £5 good– get a local map and find one for free!
If you want to fill a day– with minimal driving, it’s worth visiting the shopping centre too, and the Monkey Forest is good fun– for all ages!

This is a great place to go if you want to do some shopping, walking, having a coffee, a meal etc.
The shops are great and it feels like you are on holiday, there is also the main shop which is part of trentham estates.
The italian gardens are beautiful and great to walk around or just sit down and relax, this is one of my favourite places for taking photo’s in stoke as I am a wedding & portrait photographer that also loves to take landscape & recreational photographs. There is also a lovely walk around the lake with a coffee bar half way around (near the Monkey Forest).
There is a Hotel, Franky & Bennies and they also have a massive venue for wedding fayres etc.

Trentham Gardens was refurbished and completely renovated some years ago, and is now one of the most popular visitor attractions in the area. The Italian Gardens are lovely, but you have to pay to get in, so plan to make the most of your visit. There is a range of specialist shops catering to the needs of those wanting old fashioned sweets, pet clothing, paintings and other crafts, and are well worth window shopping even if you don’t want to buy. The Garden Centre is lovely — but has probably the most astonishingly expensive items I have ever seen in the Stoke-​on-​Trent area. A visit here is not to be missed, but keep you hands out of your wallet. The restaurant is nice — food is good but also on the pricey side. The Gardens also boast a Monkey Forest where the monkeys roam free and regularly hosts exhibitions in the grounds. Great fun for the family — but keep an eye on the costs!

nice day out. the gardens does have an admission charge but there is offers.
the gardens are beautiful and well worth paying to get in

Trentham near Stoke consists of a little shopping village, beautiful gardens and a massive garden centre, in which you will find almost anything you could wish for. Some of the shops are a little on the expensive side, but it’s well worth having a look. Particularly interesting is the Country Larder, where you will find a range of yummy cheeses, oils and vinegars, along with many different store cupboard ingredients and frozen baked goods. Another favourite is the chain Vom Fass, which sells unusual spirits, vinegars and oils by the bottle, which can also be used for refills. Look out for special fairs too, such as the small but authentic German Christmas market! Overall, a great place for a day out, even if you are only window shopping!

This is a great day out for all the family they have now got newly built shops which range from sweet shops, candle shops and more .
They have the gardens which is great for a walk and a fantastic garden centre .
The grounds are pretty and staff are helpful

Good selection of ‘different’ shops in a lovely setting.
The garden centre is very large and full of not only gardening ideas and equipment, but also a large house and home section full of décor bits and vases etc.
The kitchen part is especially good as it gives you a full range of modern, retro and traditional items for your kitchen from cutlery to appliances.
The large wishing pond in the entrance is also nice to walk around as it has a large selection of plants which grow on the water.
The shopping village has a huge selection of shop types from handmade fudge to art galleries. The eco-​recycled shop is excellent for picking up slightly more unusual gifts.

I have had 2 graduations here and they were both brilliant! The gardens are lovely, with water fountains and big old structures. The shops are great, they’re a bit pricey but sell stuff that you wouldn’t often see elsewhere
I’d recommend the shop that is up the street to the left, and then on your right. It sells a range of food and drinks, and they will package it all in a hamper of your choice and gift wrap it, a lovely personalised gift (we’ve got one for my gran a couple of times).
Another great shop is the old sweet shop, this sells tons of great sweets from years ago — where you can buy a quarter of sherbet lemons etc, very yummy.
Trentham gardens is well worth a visit.

Love this place, great to wander around the large garden centre, many small shops, the gardens and grounds.
The walks can unfortunately get very muddy as we found out to out peril and ended up ankle deep in mud!

Trentham gardens is good its very spacious, the monkey forest is also good i like the way the shops have been built. its good for big events also

I loved the bare foot walk me and my mate walked round it 3 times!!! the gardeners make the perfect mud to splash over your hoofs!!! brillient. Its such a grand idea. you can lock your stuff in a locked then wash and dry your feet (paper towel and cold water provided) when you come back. the surfaces you can walk on in the barefoot walk include straw, bark, various degrees of gravel, sand, grass, and, the walk is brocken up by a stream and some small bridges break up the walk.
Its a little pricey £6−7 to get into the main gardens, but once your in you can see the formal gardens which have matured/​filled out and looked much better than when i last visited!!! There is a fantastic maze and childrens play area, gardens designed by small children, with small houses, nice smelly plants and weird mirrors that deform your face!
Nice to add some spice into a lazy sunday
Its easy to get to on both the 101 and X1 running from stoke to Stafford (X1 is less frequent especially on a saturday– every 2 hours)
The shops at the trentham estate are fast becoming more and more commercial in nature and pricey but are sill worth a little look.

I love Trentham gardens. We spend many a Sunday afternoons here. We park by the Monkey forest and then walk down past the lake and end up by the retail village. The dog loves to come along too as she is adorable and gets loads of attention. She also like going to doggie fashions to see what goodies we cna get for her.
The monkey’s are fab, especially when they have the babies, they are so cute.
Trentham gardens has something for everyone from retail, to kids activities, one stop shop.
They hold some amazing evetns too. Bombfire night is fantastic!
The Italian Gardens are nice, but i think they are a bit overpriced, this is why we walk from the monkey forest and past the lake isntead, because you still get to take in some fantastic scenary. The gardens are amazing though, i got married at Trentham church and paid for acces to the gardens for my wedding photo’s which are beautiful, they also allowed acces for the horse an carriage which we had.

Trentham gardens is amazing. I remember going years ago before the refurb and I loved itnot because it was perfect, but because the buildings were falling down and I had to imagine what it looked like when it was first built and beautiful.
I went again last year and was suprised at how much it had changed. The shopping village is really nice, when I went they had a small german market too. Theres a shop that sells local food & drink. I had a couple of bottles of locally made wine, it tasted brilliant and got me nice and drunk :)
After realising we had to pay to get into the main garden we decided to just go walk around the lake. It was beautiful and a great place to chill out in the sun. A real favourite with dog walkers (although dogs are to be kept on leads, theres signs everywhere)
We went back in December for the ice skating. It was so beautiful, the ice rink was right on the verge of the water in the main garden and was lit up with white lights. The reflection on the water was perfect.
Its well worth going.

Before the site was refurbished I remember rollerblading or bike riding around the grounds with my family — not providing much to look at and had an eyesore of a building falling apart.
However I have been very recently several times and believe it has changed to a somewhat better day out for all the family. The grounds have been refurbished/​replanted/​redone entirely to give them a prestigious look and a fantastic smell when they all bloom.
Many more modern facilities and activities have been added to ensure all the family enjoy the day out and not the average oldies day out to see the flowers. A huge shopping village providing you with everything from chocolates to modern furnishings has been built which is fantastic to visit during both the summer and winter months. Prices aren’t too bad for food and drink which means an easily repeated day out for all walks of life.
As well as the brand new shopping village they have also created a huge garden centre which is filled with everything you may need for the garden — or if you are not a green fingered goddess it definitely inspires you to become one! This has brought back the much needed public to the site which over the years didn’t think was that possible.
Two things in particular I encourage people to take part in is the mud walking and the ice skating. During the summer months (typical British wet weather) Trentham Gardens provides a barefoot walk to take if you dare which is a barrel of laughs and guaranteed entertainment! This last christmas I also visited to go iceskating, they put up a huge rink on the edge of the lake (which is floodlit) absolutely beautiful. I myself am not that keen on iceskating but the fabolous surroundings and the decent prices is a must do for all the family.
The one thing I’m negative about is the prices to visit the gardens themselves. If you are not one with a lot in the pocket I just recommend visiting the shopping village and walking around the outside as the prices are very extortionate for what it is.

Trentham Gardens goes down in history as ‘the place I was most cold’. I was actually inspired at the tender age of 17 to spend all of my money on a Goretex coat (which I own to this day) because of this incident. Back in the day when the Rally of Great Britain was good, they had a special stage here after the grueling marathon of Kielder Forest and the Grizedale in the Lakes. Although not such a tricky stage, it was a great place to watch, and you could get right on the trackside. This particular November was beset by extremely heavy snow, meaning the ultra-​light Skoda of Stig Blomquist was incredibly doing better than all the Imprezas and Evos in the running. I digress. It was bloody freezing. So cold that the snow had melted into my clothes and I didn’t know that they were wet.
Still — classic day out, which I shall fondly remember for a long time.

Trentham Gardens is now a really fab day out for all the family. I live close by and go there alot just for coffee or a quick wander around the shops, but there is loads to do all day long. Visit the main shop and have a drink or lunch and buy things from garden stuff to clothes. Outside there is a shopping village with lots of small shops and again food to buy or have lunch, great on a sunny day.
Also there are walks around all the gardens and lake, a monkey sanctuary, they are so cute to watch, that’s a must for the kids. I’ve been twice to see them now.
In fact 1 day is not enough here, you need to come a few times to see everything, i’m glad i live close by.