Visiting our first garden in June 2009

It was a lovely day, a rest day from work and we decided to vist Downe House, which was the home of Charles Darwin.  I checked their Website and it was open that day between 11am and 5pm. They recommend you go by public transport as there is only a little car park. We took potluck and went by car to arrive at 11am. When we arrived we were told by a coach driver that it is only open to school parties on Monday and Tuesday, this being a Tuesday we could not go in.

I then selected a Local Place of Interest in my TomTom and the nearest was Emmetts Garden, this was 6.4 miles away. When we arrived the entrance fee was £6.40 each. At the time we were asked if we were members of the National Trust but we were not. We were told at the time that if we decided to join that day we would have the entrance fee refunded.

We had a look around the garden, it was lovely. Whilst there we decided we would join. The cost is £47.90 for the first person and if you join at the same time £32 for the subsequent. This appears to be a lot for yearly membership but really it is not, when you think that you are given a sticker for your car to have free parking at every property plus free entry to every property

The day we joined we went to Emmetts garden in the morning and in the afternoon we drove to Sissinghurst. At the point of joining you keep the green copy of the application form which acts as a membership card until cards are issued. There is a welcome pack which has the car sticker on the inside back cover. The best place to put this sticker is behind the interior mirror as it is in a good place to be seen by National Trust parking attendants but you cannot see it when driving, it does not act as a distraction.

On the first day it cost us £79.90 for a years membership, had we paid as none members it would have cost £32.40 including parking at Sissinghurst. This week we went to Scotney Castle which would have cost us £17. Not long now till we reach what it has cost us for the year.

Other properties and Gardens we want to visit is Red House Bexleyheath, which was the home of William Morris, Batemans which was Kiplings house, also we want to go to Chartwell where Winston Churchill lived during the war, other properties we want to got to are Bodiam Castle, Wakehurst Place, Ightham Mote, Nymans and Petworth House. By this time we have seen all these we will be in profit over our yearly membership, plus, more importantly we will have had some great days out.

Our Favourites

so far are in order:-

Standen

Wakehurst Place

Scotney.

Ightham Mote.

Emmetts Garden.

Also we have noticed that a lot of the other visitors are very friendly, so too are the staff. Most of the staff are volanteers, perhaps with being unpaid they are there because they want to. Last week whilst sitting by the Castle ruin at Scotney we got taking to a couple about some of the National Trust places they has visited, he originally came from Sheffield and she was from Halifax, Nova Scotia both of them live in Kent these days, as do I.

Years ago we bought what we thought was a magazine rack from Greenwich Sunday market for a tenner, there is one similar at Scotney and they were kind enough to see what it was listed as, it is a piece of furniture for sheet music

I intend to list the properties as we visit them, with a short description and two photos. I find the gardens picturesque, at Emmetts and Sissinghurst on our first day I took 186 photos and at Scotney Castle I took 236 photos

Ightham Mote is a lovely place to Visit. A picturesque house with water all the way around. Accross from the main house is a Stable Block which has been made into apartments to be rented out for a special holiday.

There a tours of the house, tours of the grounds and the garden. This is one to visit again