Brightling Down Farm

As soon as we drove down the lane into Brightling Down Farm we knew were in for a treat.  Post and rail fencing and an avenue of trees led us to the ancient courtyard that had been the heart of the old farm.  Val Stephens, who had already been so patient and kind in the planning of our visit, said we could eat our sandwiches in the barn and there, the tables decorated with great vases of flowers, Frankie, the Chelsea-award-winning Head Gardener, gave us a talk before walking us round the garden.  Clearly invested in the place, she told us of the architect of the new house arriving by helicopter and the visits of the garden designers, Acres Wild, and how house and garden had grown together over the last 21 years, the garden being a winner of the Society of Garden Designers award.

A wide terrace, partly covered in cooling green, runs along the front of the house, with a lower green terrace and a wide lawn seemingly disappearing into the hilly distance.

To the end of the terrace, a deeply romantic potager is reached through a small formal garden of clipped box hedges, narrow borders and a central terracotta pot filled with water – a flower, lovingly changed by Frankie every morning, floating on the water.

Beyond the potager, one walks through double greenhouses of the palest blue and on into the woods.  It is here that Frankie’s woodland walk has been created, large flat boulders leading the way through the woods and out into an orchard, a white seat beckoning from the wall of the potager.  It is all very beautiful and very English.

But the unique joy of Brightling must be the water garden running down the opposite side of the garden from the potager.  From a Japanese pavilion at the top of the hill, water tumbles down, sparkling falls carrying it down the levels, Gunnera and other water plants on either side – and at one level, a space of pure, quiet meditation.  A lake with great clumps of Hosta and delicate Acer – a platform, bounded by yellow stemmed bamboo, sitting just above the water at one end.  Many of us simply sat here breathing it all in – what more could one want!  The hanging water gardens of Brightling Down, surely unique in English gardens, held us all in their thrall. And let us not forget the juxtaposition of a meadow walk running from the very top of the cavalcade.  West meeting East in this blessed corner of England.

Report by Sue Marsh