Chelwood Vachery Forest Garden is less than 1 km from the A22 in between Forest Row and Nutley in East Sussex. And yet it feels remote, abandoned and from another time.
A brief history of Chelwood Vachery Forest Garden
Chelwood Vachery was built in 1906 by a Sir Stuart Samuel (MP) as a large country house on Ashdown Forest. The word vachery is believed to derive from Norman / French meaning cow, dairy or cattle shelter and it’s thought that cattle were kept here in Medieval times.
In 1910, Samuel created a Forest Garden. It had four lakes and ponds, each with a weir and sluice. In 1925, the house was sold to one Nettlefold who engaged a famous landscape designer, Col. Gavin Jones, to construct a “Gorge” using limestone boulders from the Cheddar Gorge. It was to be an extension to the more formal gardens of the house. Some of the boulders weighed up to three tons. A folly bridge was built in the early 1930s. The gardens were damaged during WWII and the house was sold in 1955 to British American Tobacco as a training centre.
Some restoration work was done on the gardens between 1956 and 1973. The house is now a number of private homes and there is no public access. However, the Conservators of Ashdown Forest acquired the Forest Garden in 1994 and continue to work hard to protect and preserve it. It is open to the public to visit and free.
What to expect – water gardens and arboretum rhododendron walks
From the A22, you walk towards the main house and then walk to the left of it, down a narrow path and into the woods.
The first you see of the gardens is what appears to be an abandoned pond and infinity pool. It’s unassuming but what unfolds is quite magical, perhaps because of the abandoned feel, and the encroaching forest. About 250 metres of waterfalls and pools gently cascade down the hillside to the valley below. The boulders create a sense of wildness and it feels hopelessly romantic.
You can’t help but wonder about the Edwardian ladies in their beautiful dresses who may have enjoyed the sound of the waterfalls when nature had yet to make the garden quite so untamed.
The forest is gloriously quiet except for the sound of birds and the waterfalls, but at whatever time of the year, the forest is rich in colour. Even in January, there are the burnt oranges of old bracken and the greens of grasses and ferns. But this is also a place of exotic planting and in spring, you can enjoy rhododendron and magnolia blooms as well as bluebells.
Once at the foot of the valley, you turn right and walk along the edge of the stream until you come to the folly bridge. With steps one side and a slope the other, it arches over the water and is wonderfully overgrown. Beneath it are stepping stones across Millbrook stream. From here, it’s just a short walk back to the house and the A22.
Details
You will need Ordnance Survey Explorer 135. There are plenty of car parks on the A22, but you do need to pay for parking. You can also reach the gardens from the A275 at Chelwood Gate, via Braberry Hatch. There is a pub at Chelwood Gate (The Red Lion).
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