NATURE lovers have been busy clearing poisonous bushes from the grounds of a reservoir.

Bolton Conservation Volunteers have cut back overgrown rhododendrons from the grounds of the Anderton Conference Centre on the banks of Lower Rivington Reservoir.

The Anderton Centre, which provides adventure and team building activities for youth groups and businesses, is built on the site of the ruined Anderton Hall.

The terraced gardens, created in Victorian times, once boasted avenues and croquet lawns among its ancient yew trees, but over the decades they have become overrun by rhododendron bushes.

Rhododendrons are non-native to the UK and were originally introduced as an ornamental plant from the far east.

But they are not always welcome guests in a garden as they are poisonous and do not provide a natural food source for any native British species.