Garden Visits in 2008
To help plan your diary for 2008 the following events are agreed. These visits will be made available to Sussex Gardens Trust members and their guests unless otherwise stated. For enquiries, please contact us.
Annual General Meeting of the Sussex Gardens Trust and Talk by Dr. Twigs Way
Tudor Room, The Old School Hall, Cuckfield
Saturday 26 April at 2pm
Cost: £8.50
The AGM is free but please book for the talk and tea. Those who attended last year will remember how good the cakes were!
The Annual General Meeting of the Sussex Gardens Trust will take place in the Tudor Room of the Old School Hall, Cuckfield. After the official business has been concluded, Dr Twigs Way has kindly agreed to talk on lady gardeners, among them Frances Wolseley who set up the Glynde School for Lady Gardeners at Ragged Lands and who also wrote copiously, her books giving an invaluable insight into the gardens of the early 20th century. Twigs is a professional garden historian, broadcasts frequently on television and the radio and is an entertaining writer. Her most recent book, published in 2007, is Virgins, Weeders and Queens. Her talk promises to be most enjoyable.
For late bookings please contact Shirley Penny on 01273 846586.
Isfield Place, Isfield
Thursday 15 May at 2:30pm
Cost: £8
Isfield Place has a formal, compartmentalised garden laid out from the late C19 to the west and south of a partly-moated Elizabethan manor house. The seat of the de Folkington, de la Warr and Shurley families from the 13th until the mid-18th century, Isfield Place still has traces of garden and landscape features dating back to as early as the 16th century, but there is nothing documented about the garden until 1798. At that point the manor house had been reduced to a farm house and only parts of the western walls, with bastions and watchtowers, were left standing. However, an estate map of that date shows a garden within these walls, laid out in formal quarters and planted with trees. In 1871 Henry King enlarged the house and created a formal walled garden on the site of the earlier quartered garden. In the early 20th century the area was transformed into an Arts and Crafts style 'garden of rooms'.
This is an opportunity to visit an outstanding garden that is not open to the public. Following the visit we will have tea at the Old Ship.
For late bookings please contact Jennie Starr on 01323 461310.
Scotney Castle, Lamberhurst
Thursday 26 June at 12:15pm
Cost: £15
The original castle or fortified manor house at Scotney was built by Roger Ashburnham in 1378. For 350 years it was the home of the Darrell family until debts forced them to sell to Edward Hussey in 1778. Edward Hussey III commenced building the new Jacobean-style house in 1835 and this was completed in 1843. He created the gardens in the picturesque style, with a terrace overlooking the old castle and the lake. Christopher Hussey, his grandson, who died in 1970, wrote regularly for Country Life and continued the development of the gardens. There is a herb garden designed by Lanning Roper, a heather-roofed icehouse and a wealth of romantic planting.
We are extremely lucky that Dorothy (Dottie) Owens, who recently retired as Curator at Scotney Castle, will be talking to us about the house and the life of Betty Hussey who died in 2006. The house now has a number of ground floor rooms open to the public and we will be visiting them, as well as being given a tour of the gardens by the head gardener.
We will meet at the Brown Trout for lunch and Dottie will talk to us about Scotney during coffee. We will then move on to Scotney for a tour of the house followed by the visit to the gardens. National Trust members do of course have free entry; others will have to pay the entrance fee of £7.70. Please note that numbers are limited so we suggest that you book early or ring to check if there are still places available before trying to book closer to the visit date.
For late bookings please contact Sally Walker on 01825 790970.
Wootton Manor, Folkington and Monk's House, Rodmell
Wednesday 16 July at 11am
Cost: £15.00
Wootton Manor is a beautiful brick and stone manor house, parts of which date back to the 1660s, but which was redesigned by Detmar Blow in the early years of 20th century. Nearby is Monk's House which was bought by the author Virginia Woolf and her husband Leonard in 1919, while Wootton was in the process of being enlarged and embellished. We are very grateful to Wootton's owner, Sabrina Harcourt-Smith, for inviting us back for a second visit and for allowing us to use her library for a talk on gardens in the work of Virginia Woolf.
This will be given by Nuala Hancock. Formerly a lecturer in garden and planting design, Nuala is currently engaged on doctoral research looking at both Monk's House and Charleston (home to Virginia's sister, Vanessa Bell) and their relationship to sisterhood, writing and painting. She is therefore very well qualified to set the scene for our afternoon visit and her talk will be a fascinating one.
After the talk we will be able to tour the gardens at Wootton Manor to see the changes which are being made there. Then we will go on to have lunch at the Abergavenny Arms at Rodmell, before arriving at Monk's House at 2.30 pm.
The garden at Monk's House has changed very little since the Woolf's day. There is a large open lawn where they and their literary and artistic visitors would have played bowls. Near the house is a formal garden with yew hedges and flint walls sheltering herbaceous planting. The house has changed much more than the garden but still has furniture by Vanessa Bell and Duncan Grant, as well as portraits and family paintings. It is small, though, which means that only 10 people at a time can go round it. Entry to Monk's House is £3.50 for those who are not National Trust members.
For late bookings please contact Pippa Potts on 01798 812950.
Cowdray: Old House Ruins and Walled Garden
Thursday 21 August at 2pm
Cost: £11.00
The ruins of the Old House at Cowdray, now set in a Lancelot 'Capability' Brown park, were once one of England's most important early Tudor courtier's palaces. Although part of a much older site, the house was built by Sir David Owen in 1529 and then sold to Sir William Fitzwilliam, later Earl of Southampton, whose half brother, Sir Anthony Browne inherited in 1542. Browne was a member of the court of Henry VIII, who visited a number of times, and was ennobled, as 1st Viscount Montague, by Henry in 1554. The Browne family held the Cowdray estates until 1840, but the house itself was almost completely destroyed by fire in 1793 and the ruins have undergone several phases of repair and consolidation, most recently by the Cowdray Heritage Trust. They have been open to the public since 2007.
We will have a guided tour that should take about an hour and then we will walk over to the Walled Garden which was once adjacent to the Tudor pleasure garden. In the Walled Garden, which is now called the Room in the Garden, Jan Howard has spent much effort in creating colourful herbaceous borders and box-edged beds with arches festooned with roses and flowering climbers. A beautiful glasshouse supports the idea that the area was possibly used as a kitchen garden in the 18th century. All this makes a superb backdrop for the rusted iron arches, gazebos and pavilions that you can buy. After tea and biscuits on the lawn we will have a guided tour of the garden, and there will be time to visit the shop.
For late bookings please contact Shirley Penny on 01273 846586.
Warningcamp House, Arundel
Thursday 11 September at 2.30 pm
Cost: £7.00
By kind permission of Mr and Mrs Houghton King, the owners, Warningcamp House is being opened specially for Trust members on 11 September.
It has a formal garden which was laid out in the 1920s to reflect the Victorian house which was first built in 1820. To the front of the house there are a scented 'peony and pinks' walk, a rose garden, long borders and a parterre. Elsewhere there is a kitchen garden which has been lovingly restored with a working Victorian glasshouse.
When we have seen the gardens we will be able to enjoy a home-made tea at Warningcamp House.
For late bookings please contact Pippa Potts on 01798 812950.