Coast & Country Events
Rural Life Weekend: Historic Gardens
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday June 30-July 1, 11am-5pm
Admission charges apply
In the museum’s period gardens, discover the herbs, vegetables and flowers that rural households would have grown and used from Tudor times right up to the Victorian era. There will be displays, guided walks and talks, plus a chance to view a short film about the museum’s gardens. Find out how the museum uses the plants grown in its gardens for medicinal and culinary purposes, as well as natural dyeing and other uses. Learn how important gardens were to the ordinary working rural people of the past and how they would have been managed.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
The Smallholders & Country Show
South of England Showground, Ardingly
Saturday and Sunday July 7 and 8, 9.30am-5pm
Tickets £11/seniors £9/u14s £7/u5s free/family £29
The Smallholders & Country Show, now in its 32nd year, is an independent family-run show to find anything you could want for your smallholding, small farm or large garden. There will be a a variety of traders and exhibitors, including garden, agricultural, food and craft stands, with a full programme of rural-related family entertainment, poultry, livestock plus more animals to celebrate country living. Expert advisory and training groups are also on hand for talks and demos on a variety of countryside, farming & smallholding issues for all levels of smallholder.
Phone 07714 102381, email alison@smallholdershows.co.uk or visit smallholdershows.co.uk.
Walk for Parkinson’s
The Deer Park at Benbow Pond, Cowdray Estate, Midhurst
Sunday July 8, 10am (registration 9.30am)
Minimum suggested sponsorship £50/registration fee £10/£5 for u16s
This 4.5-mile circular walk around Cowdray takes in the scenic Cowdray Golf course, Cowdray Heritage, the ruins of what was once a great Tudor house, and the Cowdray Park Polo Club grounds. The event is to raise money for Parkinson’s UK.
Phone 020 7963 3912 or visit cowdray.co.uk.
Working Animals Show
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday July 21-22, 10.30am-5pm
Admission charges apply
The show focuses on traditional and modern working breeds in an entertaining and informative way, for visitors of all ages.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
Rural Life Weekend: English Scything
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday August 4-5, 10.30am-5.30pm
Admission charges apply
Find out about traditional scything and haymaking during an informal weekend of demonstrations and displays. There will be demonstrations on scything and hay making, scythe set-up and maintenance, grinding scythe blades, snath making from natural formed timber and through steam bending, how to make ironwork to suit the stands, hay rake making and a display of historic photographs and scythes from the museum’s collection. Free 10-minute taster talks include an introduction to scythe, the English scythe and the role of the blacksmith: scythe blades.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
Vintage & Steam
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday August 18-19, 10.30am-5pm
Admission charges apply
Take a step back in time and experience the nostalgic sights and sounds of an era when steam and world class engineering powered the country. Alongside a selection of full-size steam engines will be a wide range of exhibits, with Sussex Gauge One Group display in the Downland Gridshell building. The gallopers will be at the centre of a small traditional vintage fairground (small charges apply), and there will be vintage music and a themed tea tent, local crafts and traditional demonstrations, plus arena displays.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
Rural Life Weekend: Charcoal & Woodyard
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Monday August 25-27, 10.30am-5.30pm
Admission charges apply
Experience a traditional charcoal burn and a series of demonstrations in a working woodyard. During the weekend, an early 20th century earth clamp is built, fired and emptied of charcoal at the museum. Led by Rural Life Interpreter Jon Roberts, a team will tend the clamp and talk to visitors about the charcoal burning process and its importance in south east England. demonstrations of traditional skills at the woodyard throughout the weekend. There are also free 10-minute taster talks in the woodyard.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
Rural Life Weekend: Harvest
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday September 1-2, 10.30am-5.30pm
Admission charges apply
Enjoy seasonal demonstrations focusing on the harvest, where participants can see a variety of different produce harvested across the museum site, from the vegetables in the Victorian cottage garden to flax at Tindalls Cottage and the produce of Bayleaf farmhouse garden and orchard. Talks and demonstrations include the Tudor harvest, health and medicine in Tudor England, the hedgerow harvest, working heavy horses, mealtime in the Tudor household, a performance of Smuggling in Sussex, the Victorian cottage harvest and the Toll House harvest.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.
Parham Autumn Fair
Parham House and Gardens, Parham Park, Pulborough
Saturday-Sunday September 22-23, 10.30am-5pm
Normal admission charges apply
This celebration of traditional estate life and all that harvest brings offers the best of homemade food and locally grown produce as well as activities for all ages. With working horse cart rides, estate tours, deer walks, gun dogs and falconry displays, there is plenty to see and do. There will also be stalls selling food, drink and country wares.
Phone 01903 742021 or visit parhaminsussex.co.uk.
Rural Life Weekend: Home
Weald & Downland Living Museum, Singleton, Chichester
Saturday-Sunday September 29-30, 10.30am-5.30pm
Admission charges apply
With exhibit homes at the Museum spanning rural life in south east England from 950AD to the Victorian era, join us over this special weekend for fascinating talks and demonstrations about domestic life through the ages. Come and explore our historic houses! There will be demonstrations in locations including the Anglo-Saxon hall house, a home in the year 950AD, the cottage from Hangleton, which was lived in before the Black Death, the medieval Hall from Boarhunt, the Tudor home Bayleaf farmhouse, the chocolate box-pretty Poplar Cottage, the cold home Tindalls Cottage and Whittaker’s Cottages, which show life in the Victorian era.
Phone 01243 811363 or visit wealddown.co.uk.