Kent & Sussex Tour « Cumnor Gardening Club

Kent & Sussex Tour

This year the Club’s summer tour included 10 glorious and varied gardens in Kent and Sussex some of which are nationally well known, many with fascinating histories and some with royal connections.

Based at the Lingfield Park Hotel, adjacent to the racecourse, we unexpectedly enjoyed an evening watching the sport of kings from the balcony of the dining room. The royal connections continued with our guide, Colin Crosbie, who had at one time been the Head Gardener to the late Queen Mother at Royal Lodge, Windsor. Entertaining, knowledgeable and passionate about trees he contributed greatly to the success of the tour.

We started at Hever Castle, the home of Anne Boleyn and visited by Henry VIII. The present gardens were created in the 1920s by the American, William Waldorf Astor, the father in law of Nancy Astor, the first women MP. The Italian and rose gardens were particularly fine.

Tom Hart Dyke was captured by guerrillas whilst plant hunting in South America. Whilst in captivity he designed a garden to display plants according to their continent of origin. On his release he realised this vision in the walled garden of Lullingstone Castle, his family home. Passionate about plants he was an inspiring guide to this unusual garden.

The garden at Sissinghurst was created in the 1930s by Vita Sackville West and Harold Nicolson in the remains of a brick Tudor Castle in the depths of the Kent countryside. Perhaps the most well known of the gardens it remains close to gardening perfection. The rose garden was at its best, a sea of colour and heady with scent under a clear blue sky. One of the highlights of our tour.

Eccentric and unconventional, the late Christopher Lloyd developed the garden at Great Dixter which had originally been laid out by Edwin Lutyens. Packed to overflowing with an amazing collection of plants, the garden was vibrant and exuberant with unusual combinations of plants, textures and sometimes clashing colours.

In contrast the gardens at Great Comp and Pashley Manor were quiet and serene. Initially seen in the soft light of a damp afternoon, Great Comp was a haven of lush planting around meandering grass glades and woodland paths. The garden at Pashley Manor surrounds a wonderful house, half timbered at the front, Georgian at the back. Enjoyed in the warm, late afternoon sunshine with a black swan cruising on the lake it was a model English country garden.

The spacious parklands at Borde Hill and Wakehurst Place included a fine selection of trees as well as more formal and colourful gardens.

Perhaps the most unusual garden was that at Clinton Lodge developed by Lady Collum and her late husband since the 1950s to reflect English garden design from the C16^th to the C21^st. We were privileged to be shown round this beautifully presented garden by the elegant owner who also provided morning coffee and cake on the terrace overlooking the deer park.

The garden at Nymans resumed the royal connection. Developed by the Messel family and now National Trust, the last private owner was Anne Messel the mother of Lord Snowden. More wonderful trees, many replanted to replace those lost in the Great Storm of 1987, lead to the gardens, surrounding the ruins of the house burnt down in 1947.

The tour was arranged by Brightwater Holidays, and we had an excellent guide in Colin Crosbie.