13^thAugust 2024
 

Wonderful woodcraft to peerless plants:weekend events at Hole Park

From learning bushcraft skills and practising heritage crafts to finding top garden plant ideas, there is something for everyone at Hole Park, Rolvenden in Kent, this coming weekend.

The historic gardens, which are well known for their Spring Bluebell Spectacular and Autumn colour displays, are hosting not one but two big events:-

Wilderness Gathering (Thursday 15^th- Sunday 18^thAugust):The original and longest running UK festival of bushcraft and wilderness skills is relocating to Hole Park for the first time. The event includes the opportunity to camp in the historic surrounding parkland, along with a full weekend of workshops on everything from boat building to blacksmithing, in a relaxed family atmosphere. There is also a programme of children's activities.

Full weekend tickets, with or without camping, can be bought online in advance. Alternatively, day tickets can be purchased on the gate on Friday 16^th, Saturday 17^thand Sunday 18^thAugust, at £20 per adult and £15 per child aged 6-15 years with under-fives admitted free. Dogs are not allowed on site for the duration of this event. For more information and to book, please go to:www.wildernessgathering.co.uk

The Summer Plant Fair (Sunday 18^thAugust)is organised by a small team of enthusiastic growers, dedicated to promoting reliable and unusual plants to keen gardeners. It brings together a wide range of small nurseries from the area to create a number of memorable gardening events.
 

Beechbridge Plants; Hardys Garden Plants; Copton Ash; Mrs Mitchell's Kitchen and Garde; Pelham Plants; Pineview Plants; Plant Base; Rose Cottage Plant; Southon Plants and Swallowfields Plants are amongst the local businesses taking part.
 

Head Gardener Quentin Stark
Photo by Helen Douglas 

Hole Park's Head Gardener, Quentin Stark, and members of the gardening team will also be on hand to answer your plant queries.

The Summer Plant Fair runs from 11am to 4pm on Sunday 18^thAugust, and Hole Park's Coach House Tea Room will also be open serving homemade lunches and cakes. Tickets are £12 per adult (£11 when you pre-book online) and £2.50 per child (aged 5-17 years). Under-five's go free and tickets include entry to Hole Park Gardens, which are currently bursting with late Summer colour, as part of the visit. For more information, please visit www.plant-fairs.co.uk

 
Red Admiral on Echinacea 
Hydrangeas in the vinyeard
Hole Park's Hebatious Border  

The above three photos by Alison Miles @AJMSnaps

 -ends-

 
Full size photos can be downloaded by clicking on the links below the images 
 

For further information please contact: Alison Miles, Press Office, Hole Park

E:pressoffice@holepark.com

M: 07900 691116

Notes to Editors:

Nestled in 200 acres of classic English parkland,Hole Park is a hidden gem of the High Weald National Landscape. It has been owned by the Barham family for the past four generations, having been purchased as a family home by Edward Barham's Great Grandfather, Colonel Arthur Barham, in 1911.

In the mid-1920s the Colonel made the bold decision to share the beauty of his recently-created gardens by opening them to the public: a tradition that is maintained to the present day. Over the decades, each succeeding generation has improved and innovated the layout and planting in the gardens.

Current custodians, Edward and Clare Barham, moved into Hole Park with their three children and dogs in 2003. Since then, they have undertaken a comprehensive re-planting program of the garden which reflects and enhances the Colonel's original plans from the 1920s.

They both take an active role in managing the gardens, including on public opening days so are often found selling tickets in front of the house, serving in the Tea Room or walking their dogs around the gardens.

Summer Highlights

Visitors to the gardens in the summer months can see the recently renovated long herbaceous borders. Half the border has been replanted in the original pink and blue planting scheme first used by the late Christopher Lloyd when he first designed the border at Hole Park.  The remainder of the border was replanted using the original colour scheme of yellow and white. Visitors can also find a riot of colour in the Centenary Garden (formerly the Rose Garden) created in 2022 to celebrate 100 years of the gardens being open to the public. 

Late Summer and Autumn Highlights

The late flowering agapanthus ‘Hole Park Blue'and colourful exotic border with its cannas and dahlias are an impressive sight in late summer before the reds, yellows and golds of autumn appear, bringing colour and interest to the gardens in October. 

Spring Highlights

Visitors to the gardens in early April will see swathes of crocuses, narcissi and daffodils.  A pretty ‘Camelia Walk' with shade-loving hellebores takes walkers down a path flanked by flowering cherry trees.  Before the bluebells take centre stage, the meadows and woodland floor are a sea of primroses and dainty blue scillas.  Magnificent mature magnolia trees will also be flowering throughout the gardens and woodlands.

In May the gardens are full of tulips, roses and clematis and the vineyard garden has several impressive standard wisterias to admire.  Rhododendrons and azaleas flower throughout the gardens and delicate wild orchids will start to flower in the meadows alongside the architectural spires and star-shaped flowers of ‘camassia'. The sundial garden provides an interesting view over the Wealden countryside through an oval shaped window in the topiary hedge.