History 1st Generation

During the 1930s Alfred and Margaret Bent started to cultivate roses as a hobby in the front garden of their terraced house at 404 Warrington Road, Glazebury. It wasn’t long before their garden became the talk of the village and they started to sell some of their roses locally. Alfred experimented by growing his own rootstocks from rose hips collected from local hedgerows and also propagated apple trees and made a considerable contribution to the standardisation of their rootstocks.

After the war Alfred was advised by his doctor to take an outside job full time. It was this advice that marked the start of the Bents’ family business. In the early 1950s he bought 16 acres belonging to the Speakman House to begin growing on a larger scale, but trading remained difficult; in those days there were no such things as garden centres. Everything was planted in November to December or March to April and the money earned had to last all year round.

The most significant development came in the 1960s. Alfred’s sons, Ron and John, joined the business and bought another 44 acres adjacent to the Speakman House site, giving the family 60 acres of land overall. In 1966 the first shop was opened marking the beginning of Bents Garden Centre as we know it today.