Bennetts Water Gardens

Bennetts Water Gardens is an 8-acre garden in Chickerell, near Weymouth, Dorset. It holds national and international collections of water lilies.
In 1959 the founder, Norman Bennett, planted the very first water lilies here.

Bennetts decided to build a replica of Monet's Japanese bridge over its main lily pond, a former clay pit, in 1999 after an old one fell into a state of disrepair. Bennet did a very good job building this garden, so much so that it was mistakenly featured in the advert in the Radio Times instead of Monet's garden in Giverny, France, where Monet painted the famous masterpieces and gets as many as 500,000 visitors a year. Come to Weymouth and enjoy the Monet view in Water Gardens, 20,000 visitors a year already do so.

Small, compact, but lovely enchanting gardens. Come here for restful and relaxing walk, grab a picnic or have a traditional Cream Tea an the Monet cafe.

Grass pathways lead you through the series of ponds and lakes surrounded by wetland plants, native trees, palms, wild plants and flowers. The 8 ponds are home to over 140 water lilies. Lilies tend to bloom from early summer, to see lilies in full beauty, visit gardens from June to September.

In 1990 Bennetts' produced several seedlings, and one turned out to be quite special and was named Nymphaea 'Weymouth Red'. ... In August 1998 lily    was a winner of the International Waterlily & Water Gardening Society (IWGS) and was awarded Best Small Water Lily. Bennett's Water Lilies have also been exported in large quantities all over the world.

It is impossible not to be impressed my this amazing place. It’s a cliché but it was like wandering through a Monet painting.

After visiting the gardens, visit the small museum, which contains over 150 years of local history including Chickerell Village (mentioned in the Doomsday Book) here is a wealth of information about the once thriving Chickerell Brickworks, one of which is now home to the gardens.

Entrance depend on the season, for full information and to book, visit  www.bennettswatergardens.com