The company was founded by John Hartle in the 1970's. He started life as a farmer rearing animals and selling eggs and dairy products before one day buying a few rose trees at a farmers market.These roses sold very quickly at the Royton site, so he decided to try selling a few types of plants alongside his farm produce, this led to the creation of one of Englands' first fully fledged garden centres. His daughter Frances came into the company from an insurance background, followed by son Chris, who came from a catering background, both with an eye for design and creativity that has furthered the business on

John bought the second site at Radcliffe in 1986, Irwell bank farm was simply a disused farm with some derelict buildings. John saw the potential of the site, even though it was a huge risk to spend all his money on an unknown quantity. This turned out to be a stroke of genius as now our Radcliffe site is known across the country and is one of the top 30 independent garden centres in England. A huge fire in 2003 laid siege to all the old feature buildings of the farm which were full of character, although heart breaking at the time, this enabled Radcliffe to rebuild and become a destination garden centre for the whole of greater manchester and lancashire. The early success of Radcliffe enabled us to purchase the picturesque Cloughbottom nursery in Dobcross and Tickhill garden centre in Halifax, both fantastic additions to the group. Newbank is still a family run company, we care deeply about our business and feel that is it something totally different that entertains and interests our customers.