Enjoying the Garden Weekend at Parham House and Gardens
When staying at Spring Cottage in Amberley, Sussex last month, I was delighted to realise that it coincided with my annual visit to the Garden Weekend at Parham House and Gardens. This is held on the second weekend of July each year in the grounds of this beautiful Elizabethan country estate amidst rolling countryside and is just a stone’s throw from our Rustic Escape in Amberley.
Having watched the Morris dancers and a local jazz trio welcoming the visitors I passed through the walled garden, bursting with the colour of thousands of blooms and explored a wide variety of high quality flowers and plants from specialist nurseries in the South East of England. I enjoyed talks and demonstrations on all manner of gardening topics including the presentation of a new, local gin and the visit of a craftsman still active after sixty years as a broom-maker, who shared with us his skill at making brooms, baskets and the traditional Sussex trug out of wood and sticks. It was an entertaining and enjoyable day in a typically English country fair.
As I sat under one of the magnificent oak trees to be found within Parham Park, I enjoyed a venison burger prepared by a local organic farmer passionate about the need to protect and rear local deer and game and looked out over the Amberley Wildbrooks Nature Reserve, at the cattle grazing serenely in the distance and felt a real sense of being at one with the landscape and my surroundings.
Parham Garden Weekend takes place every second weekend in July and Parham Autumn Fair is held every third weekend in September. Rustic Escape guests can enjoy an afternoon at the fair as part of our three day escape celebrating Houses and Castles of Sussex.
Do contact Rustic Escapes for more information about this or any of our other escapes: info@rusticescapes.com or (+34) 664 07 40 89 | (+44) 7598 348195
Tracy Ibberson
All photos & videosused in this article belong to Rustic Escapes
