The gardens at Gravetye Manor
William Robinson Festival at Gravetye Manor
Sunday 20th July, 10am - 4.30pm
£25 per person, for morning or afternoon entry, including tea, coffee and cake
All ticket proceeds go to Chestnut Tree House Children’s Hospice
Gardening talk from RHS award-winning landscape design practice Harris Bugg
Tickets can be booked at www.gravetyemanor.co.uk/whats-on
Gravetye Manor, the Elizabethan Manor Hotel, Restaurant and Gardens on the West Sussex borders is thrilled to officially announce the date of its annual William Robinson Festival on Sunday 20th July.
Celebrating the pioneering Victorian gardener William Robinson, known as ‘the father of the English Flower Garden’, guests are invited to enjoy a full day of celebrations, garden talks and demonstrations, while enjoying the gardens at Gravetye Manor in spectacular high summer bloom. There will also be plant sales from Pelham Plants and No Name Nursery, plus a local cheese showcase, Nyetimber Vineyard wine tasting, Morris Dancing, and much more.
Alongside the celebrations, the festival is excited to welcome Charlotte Harris and Hugo Bugg, co-founders of Harris Bugg Studio, a values-driven and award-winning landscape design practice. Together they have won six gold medals, two silver gilts and two best in shows at RHS shows. In their talk, the duo will discuss their design inspirations and how they approach the diverse range of projects they work on including the Kitchen Garden at RHS Bridgewater; as well as a series of experimental garden rooms they designed for a private, rural estate in Oxfordshire. Their talk begins at 11am, followed by a three-course lunch by Gravetye Manor’s new Executive Chef Martin Carabott, in the restaurant’s glass fronted dining room at 12 noon. Tickets are £155 per person and includes the talk, lunch and drinks.
Itinerary on the day
10.00am – Festival opens
10.30am – Flower Demonstration with Head Florist, Sharon Coote in the Pavilion
11.15am – Talk in the Kitchen Garden with Assistant Head Gardener, Helena Lawson
12 noon – Garden Talk on the Long Border with Gravetye Head Gardener, Tom Coward
12.30pm – Morris Dancing and music in the Flower Garden
1.00pm – Join William Robinson’s biographer, Richard Bisgrove, for a fascinating look at ‘the Father of the English Flower Garden’, in the Little Garden
2.15pm – Morris Dancing and music in the Flower Garden
2.15pm – Talk in the Kitchen Garden with Assistant Head Gardener, Helena Lawson
3pm – Garden Talk on the Long Border with Gravetye Head Gardener, Tom Coward
3.45pm – Flower Demonstration with Head Florist, Sharon Coote in the Pavilion
4.30pm – Festival concludes
Further festivities will be taking place on the Pavilion throughout the day including:
·Sussex wine tasting with Nyetimber
Local cheese showcase with High Weald Dairy
Plant sale with Pelham Plants & The No Name Nursery
William Robinson exhibition
Gravetye gifts and flower bouquets for sale
About William Robinson
Robinson started life in Ireland in the poverty of the potato famine, where at an early age he trained as a garden boy. By the 1860s he had moved to London to work on the new botanic gardens in Regent’s Park, where he started his career as a garden writer. He produced huge amounts of work and set about re-shaping the way we think about gardens. Continuing Robinson’s legacy is Gravetye Manor’s Head Gardener, Tom Coward, ensuring every tree, shrub and flower is lovingly cared for while retaining the spirit of Robinson’s original plan and thinking for the space.
After a humble start in life, Robinson became very wealthy from his writing and in 1884 he bought Gravetye Manor. Over time he bought over 1000 acres of the surrounding landscape and used the estate to put his ideas into practice. Much of the land was used for experimental forestry, and the results of his work continue to be managed today by the William Robinson Gravetye Charity.
About Gravetye Manor
Gravetye Manor, an Elizabethan manor house hotel and Michelin starred restaurant in West Sussex looks out over 35 acres of stunning world-renowned gardens, walled kitchen garden, orchard, glasshouses and Peach House set within a further 1000 acres of woodland. Originally created by visionary gardener William Robinson in 1885, Gravetye Manor’s gardens are considered amongst the most influential in horticultural history and one of the most important historic gardens in England. Robinson’s preference for the ‘wild garden’, mixed herbaceous borders and hardy perennial planting broke with the formal Victorian style of the day, and his radical approach remains as popular as ever with gardeners today.
