We are a rare heritage site in the UK today, a lot of local people do not know that we are in Hawkhurst. We are painstakingly restoring all of the glasshouses and it is free to enter our garden. We want to keep it this way but our nursery has to earn it's keep in order to keep restoring the glasshouses. If people don't know we're here not only are they missing out on a hugely important heritage site in Hawkhurst but we may have to close our doors and think about charging entry instead.
We have applied for a brown tourist sign to direct people to our plant nursery. Kent County Council has sent our application back without looking into it saying simply that we do not qualify. They give 2 reasons for this; 1 – we are primarily retail, 2 – we do not have 20’000 visitors a year (we estimated that we have around 15’000 visitors a year, but this was a guess).
We have been told that we are within the top five of the most intact Victorian Kitchen gardens left in the UK today with 13 Victorian glasshouses including a Peach house, Melon House, Cucumber House, Five span Vinery and a Fernery plus a bothy, dipping pond, apple store, mushroom store. We don't charge for people to come inot our garden, we involve the community in charity fundraising events, local primary schools come each year to learn about growing and we have a museum detailing our history dating back to 1275! All for free.
We feel that we are a very important heritage site and we and the public deserve to know that this amazing place exists in Hawkhurst, not to just come across it by surprise
