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Places to visit in the area surrounding our accommodation near Hartfield
Pooh Corner, Hartfield
All the "Enchanted Places" including
the famous "Poohsticks Bridge" are found in the parish of Hartfield
which stretches deep into the picturesque Ashdown Forest.
When A. A. Milne wrote the Winnie-the-Pooh stories
back in the 1920's his son, Christopher Robin, visited the shop every week with
his Nanny.
The little shop, built three centuries ago, has
the largest selection of "Pooh-phernalia" to be found anywhere in
the world. The village has two pubs, a tea room and general store.
Open: Mon - Sat 9am - 5pm
Sun and Bank Holidays 1.30pm - 5pm
Tel: 01892 770456
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Groombridge Place Gardens
Beautiful formal gardens boast a series of 'rooms',
together with extensive herbaceous borders and the classical 17th century moated
manor as its backdrop. High above the walled garden lies The Enchanted Forest;
here are secret, mysterious gardens to challenge and delight your imagination
Open: April - Oct 9am - 6pm
Directions: SW Tunbridge Wells on B2110
Tel: 01892 863999
www.groombridge.co.uk
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Sheffield Park Gardens
Wander at your leisure through this beautiful
and extensive "garden for all seasons" with its four large lakes linked
by cascades and waterfalls. Trace the history of the garden which was laid out
by Lancelot "Capability" Brown.
Open : Jan - Feb Sat & Sun 10.30am - 4pm
Mar - Oct Tues - Sun & BH Mon 10.30am - 6pm
or dusk if earlier
Nov -Dec Tues - Sun 10.30am - 4pm
Tel : 01825 790231
Sheffield
Park Gardens Website
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Ashdown Llama Farm, Wych Cross
This farm is home to a large herd of llamas and
alpacas, as well as sheep and goats. There is a "World of Wool" museum,
farm trail, picnic area, tearooms and gift shop selling an extensive range of
alpaca knitwear.
Open: 1 April - 30 Sept Tues - Sun and BH Mon
11am - 5pm
1 Oct - 31 March Sat & Sun only 11am - 4pm
Tel: 01825 712040
www.llamapark.co.uk
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Bluebell Railway, Sheffield Park
The Bluebell Railway operate steam trains between
Sheffield park and Kingscote. Sheffield Park station is situated close to Sheffield
Park Gardens on the A275 between Lewes and East Grinstead. The station has parking
for cars and coaches, locomotive sheds, a museum, buffet and shops. Horsted
Keynes station has car parking, a large picnic field, and a licensed Victorian
buffet. Bus service 473 connects East Grinstead and Kingscote stations.
Trains Run: Weekends throughout the year
May - Sept and school holidays daily
Tel: 01825 722370 (timetable)
Tel: 01825 723777 (enquiries)
www.bluebell-railway.co.uk
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Barnsgate Manor Vineyard, Herons Ghyll
This is more than just a vineyard. It has beautiful
views and walks through the vineyards to see llamas and donkeys. There are restaurants,
tearooms and a gift shop where the estate produced Barnsgate wines can be tasted
and bought.
Open: Daily 10am - 5pm or dusk if earlier.
Tel: 01825 713366
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Wakehurst Place, Ardingly
Wakehurst Place, managed by The Royal Botanic
Gardens, Kew, is an inspiration of colour throughout the seasons. Woodlands
contain native and exotic temperate trees from across the world, including birch,
southern beech, giant redwood and Japanese maple. The woodland walk is particularly
fine in summer, with native orchids and other wild flowers. The Water gardens
display a rich mixture of plantings including large groups of blue poppies and
giant Himalayan lilies. An elevated walkway through the wetland habitat allows
you to observe the wildlife and plants of the Sussex Weald. Ornamental gardens
surround a fine 16th century mansion, including walled gardens, a winter garden
and a wonderful spring border around the mansion pond. The circular route winds
through more than 170 acres of ornamental gardens, woodland, wetland and meadow.
Open: Daily from 10am.
Tel: 01444 894066
Wakehurst
Place Website
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Drusillas Zoo, Alfriston
Named "the best small zoo in England",
Drusillas has masses of hands-on activities for
children and a wide variety of animals, including a walk-through bat enclosure.
There are keeper talks, Animal Encounters and a Discovery Centre.
Open: All year round except Dec 24,25,26
10am - 5pm
www.drusillas.co.uk
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Pantiles, Tunbridge Wells
The pretty colonnaded walkway known as the Pantiles
has become probably the most well known view of Royal Tunbridge Wells. Once
the playground of the gentry and royalty, the Pantiles remains a pleasant place
to browse, shop, eat, drink and stroll.
The Pantiles and Tunbridge Wells itself, owe
their beginnings to the discovery of the Chalybeate Spring in the early 17th
century and the popularity of the spa water amongst the gentry and royalty of
Georgian England. As Tunbridge Wells grew in popularity as a spa resort, so
did the area surrounding the Spring - eventually leading to the building of
the colonnaded walkway in the 18th century, later known as The Pantiles.
In its heyday in Georgian times, the "Walks"
as they were then known, were the place to see and be seen for visitors to Tunbridge
Wells. A strict protocol was adhered to - gentry on the 'Upper Walks', the colonnade,
and everyone else on the 'Lower Walks'. Richard Beau Nash, a dandy of the day
made it his business to ensure that this protocol was adhered to by acting as
a kind of Master of Ceremonies during 'the season' in Tunbridge Wells and in
the town's rival, Bath. Things are much more relaxed nowadays and the Pantiles
is now a very attractive and stylish part of Royal Tunbridge Wells.
Much of the colonnade has been renewed since
its beginnings in the 17th century but most of the surrounding buildings date
from the 18th and 19th centuries.
The Pantiles is now home to a fascinating variety
of small specialist shops, antique shops and open-air cafés, restaurants
and bars. Click here for further details of the wide variety of quality shops
and restaurants in the Pantiles.
The Spring situated at the northern end of the
Pantiles still flows, and the reputedly health-giving water is served in the
summer months by a traditional 'Dipper'. In the summer months a series of open
air music concerts take place, as well as a 5-day Georgian Festival - Scandals
at the Spa - celebrating the Georgian heyday of this the historical centre of
Royal Tunbridge Wells.
The Pantiles is also where visitors will find
the Tourist Information Centre in the Old Fish Market building, and the A Day
at the Wells exhibition situated in the Corn Exchange Shopping Arcade, which
tells the history of Georgian Tunbridge Wells.
Tunbridge
Wells Website
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Sissinghurst Castle Gardens
One of the world’s most celebrated gardens,
the creation of Vita Sackville-West and her husband Sir Harold Nicolson. Developed
around the surviving parts of an Elizabethan mansion with a central red-brick
prospect tower, a series of small, enclosed compartments, intimate in scale
and romantic in atmosphere, provide outstanding design and colour through the
season. The study, where Vita worked, and library are also open to visitors.
Opening arrangements:
Garden
22 Mar–2 Nov 11–6:30 Mo Tu Fr
22 Mar–2 Nov 10–6:30 Sa Su
Shop
22 Mar–2 Nov 11–5:30 Mo Tu Fr Sa Su
5 Nov–24 Dec 10:30–4:30 We Th Fr Sa Su
Restaurant
22 Mar–2 Nov 11–5:30 Mo Tu Fr Sa Su
5 Nov–21 Dec 11–4 We Th Fr Sa Su
Notes: Open BHols 10–6.30. Last admission
1 hr before closing or before dusk if earlier. Shop and restaurant open from
10 Sat & Sun
Sissinghurst
Castle Gardens Website
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Bedgebury Pinetum
Bedgebury Pinetum has the finest collection of
conifers in the world providing enjoyment to visitors who come to appreciate
the beauty and tranquillity of this unique attraction, which nestles quietly
among lakes and valleys in the Kent countryside. Open 365 days a year, there
is plenty to enjoy around the seasons. A shop and information centre is open
daily and refreshments are also available.
www.bedgeburypinetum.org.uk
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Withyham Church
Most of the original church in Withyham, St Michael
and All Angels, was destroyed by fire in 1663. Only small areas of wall and
the lower part of the tower remained. It was subsequently rebuilt by 1672.
www.withyham.org.uk
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Hever Castle
Be inspired to go and visit this thirteenth century
romantic castle - once the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. Set in magnificent
gardens from the majestic formal Italian Garden and topiary, to the informal
meanderings of the lakeside and Sunday Walk. The Water Maze on Sixteen Acre
Island and the Yew Maze challenges both adults and children alike!
Daily 1 Mar-30 Nov.
Gardens open 11am.
Castle opens 12 noon.
Last admission 5pm.
Final exit 6pm.
Mar & Nov 11am - 4pm.
www.hever-castle.co.uk
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Leeds Castle
Built on an island in the centre of a motionless
lake, 'the loveliest castle in the world' near Maidstone in Kent, has become
a national treasure and one of England's best loved tourist attractions.
Once a Norman fortress, a royal residence, a
palace to King Henry VIII and even a family house until as recently as 1974,
this beautifully preserved Castle was left to the Leeds Castle Foundation on
the death of Olive, Lady Baillie, the Castle's last private owner. It now welcomes
close to half a million visitors a year.
A fine collection of historic furnishings, paintings and tapestries fill the
rooms and hallways of the Castle, while attractions within the 500 acres of
parkland and gardens include a maze, a grotto, an aviary, greenhouses, a vineyard
and a museum of antique dog collars. Formal gardens include the Culpeper Garden
- a quintessentially English cottage garden ablaze with roses, lupins, and hollyhocks
throughout the Summer; and the Lady Baillie Garden, a delightful Mediterranean-style
terraced garden which overlooks the Great Water.
A varied programme of special events runs throughout
the year and includes an internationally renowned hot air balloon weekend in
September, a Festival of English Food and Wine in May, Easter Celebrations and
Open Air Concerts in late June and early July. A number of themed dinners are
also offered in either our seventeenth century Fairfax Hall or within the rooms
of the Castle itself. The Castle Grounds also boast a nine-hole 'pay and play'
gold course, gift shops, restaurants and tea rooms.
10am - 5pm Mar - October. 10am - 3pm Nov - Feb.
www.leeds-castle.com
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Bodiam Castle
One of the most famous and evocative castles
in Britain, Bodiam was built in 1385, as both a defence and a comfortable home.
The exterior is virtually complete and the ramparts rise dramatically above
the moat below. Enough of the interior survives to give an impression of castle
life, and there are spiral staircases and battlements to explore.
1 Jan – 22 Feb 10 – 4 Sat Sun
23 Feb – 31 Oct 10 – 6 Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
1 Nov – 9 Feb 10 – 4 Sat Sun
Bodiam
Castle Website
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Scotney Castle Gardens
The Scotney Castle Garden in Kent was originally
created in the 1830's by Edward Hussey III who had the imagination to incorporate
the ruined medieval castle as the centrepiece of his Picturesque style landscape
design.
The original castle or fortified manor house
was built by Roger Ashburnham in 1378 apparently in response to the threat of
invasion by France. For 350 years Scotney Castle was the home of the Catholic
Darell family. In 1778 Edward Hussey bought the castle after family squabbles
and lawsuits drained the Darell's resources forcing them to sell. Between 1783
and 1792 Edward Hussey pieced the rest of the old Darrell estate back together.
In 1835 his grandson Edward Hussey III moved
back to Scotney and built his new home in the Elizabethan style on a terrace
overlooking the old castle which he then incorporated into the landscape with
the assistance of William Sawrey Gilpin. Scotney Castle Garden was eventually
left to the National Trust by Edwards grandson Christopher on his death in 1970.
The garden has good displays of colour through
most of the seasons, starting with carpets of spring flowers followed by massed
clumps of rhododendrons and the intense blue of Hydrangeas in late summer, finally
the rich autumnal foliage of reds and golds.
Scotney Castle is located on the A21 in south
Kent.
Garden
22 Mar–9 Nov 11–6 Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Old Castle
1 May–28 Sep 11–6 Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Shop
22 Mar–9 Nov 11–6 Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Estate walks
All year Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat Sun
Open BH Mons. Closed Good Fri. Last admission
1 hr before closing. Garden closes 6 or dusk if earlier
Scotney
Castle Website
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