On Sunday we went to Great Dixter where we were treated to a dazzling display of spring colour and came away vowing to be far more courageous with tulips in the future.

We also explored Great Dixter’s historic Oast House before taking advantage of Sunday’s warm sunshine to lunch in the picturesque ‘Antient’ Cinque Port town of Rye.

Yesterday we were at the fabulous RHS gardens at Wisley where everyone found their favourites: from magnificent azaleas and rhododendrons on Battleston Hill, acres of Fruit Fields in full-blossom and exquisite spring alpine displays, to the rare and very special treat of seeing the extraordinary Jade Vine in full aquamarine bloom in the Glass House for the first time in eight years.

Today it’s the splendours of Leeds Castle and Vita Sackville West’s dreamy Sissinghurst then on to the castle gardens of Nymans, Scotney and Hever Castle later in the week.

The success of Australia’s magnificent Trailfinders Australian Show Garden, presented by Flemings, which won a Gold Medal plus the coveted ‘Best in Show’ at the Chelsea Flower Show earlier today, may even bring more visitors from Australia to Chelsea next year.

Many congratulations and we will look forward to showing you around the best of the glorious gardens of ‘The Garden of England’ while you are here!

Meanwhile I’ll be relaxing during my own visit to the Chelsea Flower Show on Friday.  The past few years I have been lucky enough to work on various (Gold Medal winning!) Show Gardens so it will be a change to see the Show from a visitor’s perspective.

Tucked away in the Darent valley are some of our favourite places. Lullingstone Castle, once an estate of 6,000 acres, where family fortunes have waxed and waned over the nineteen generations that have lived there. The current house was built by Sir John Peachey whose two exceptional claims to fame were being the jouster – read carefully jouster, not jester- to King Henry VII, and being barred from court by King Henry VIII for ‘loud and lewd’ behaviour, doesn’t that get the imagination racing?

There are tales of elopements, racy neighbours and a more sedate descendant Sir Percival, whose admiration for Queen Anne knew no bounds. He even re-modelled the house so she could manage the stairs to the State Room in her later years, now there’s fealty for you. Sir Percival was not the only occupant renowned for service to queen and country; twenty rooms of silk worms did sterling work during World War II spinning silk for parachutes to equip the Boys in Blue stationed at nearby RAF Biggin Hill. Any pilot who deployed their parachute became an automatic member of the Caterpillar Club. After the War the silkworms continued their devotion by spinning silk for HM Queen Elizabeth’s lace wedding veil and her Coronation train.

The lawn outside Lullingstone Castle is extremely flat, levelled originally to become Sir John’s tilt yard or jousting arena, but more recently used in 1875 by Sir William and friends to develop the first real code of rules of Lawn Tennis as members of a sub-group of the Marylebone Cricket Club.

Today Lullingstone Castle is most famous for its wonderful World Garden inspired, designed and grown by Tom Hart-Dyke who has a few tales of the unexpected of his own to relate. He conducts personal tours of the garden which are not to be missed.

Within two miles of the Castle is Lullingstone Roman villa – resplendent with spectacular mosaics and rare wall paintings, a heated bath-suite and a ‘house-church’ from 100AD.

To visit the villa you pass through the pretty village of Eynesford – the ford is still in place to catch unwary motorists – now a picturesque stream, but a river to be reckoned with in the Middle Ages.

English villages are merited on their charm, cricket pitch and pub. Eynesford scores well on all three plus the added bonus of castle ruins; Eynsford Castle is a rare survival of an early Norman ‘curtain wall’ castle, undisturbed by later building activity. An important Eynesford resident to whom all BB guides pay homage was Arthur Mee, author of The King’s England, a guide to the counties of England. I wonder just how many of us have a copy of his works on our bookshelves!

A stone’s throw away is the Castle Farm, in summer the fields are awash with purple, and those travelling by experience a sense of calm as the lavender scent wafts in through the air-conditioning.  On a few special days you can dine in the lavender fields, failing that you can help out with the harvest or join some of the lavender product tastings – so good for the karma!

Throw one more stone and you are in the pretty village of Shoreham where you‘ll find a museum dedicated to the Battle of Britain and those who took part from Biggin Hill. The exhibition includes some poignant personal letters written by pilots, and aircraft exhibits, many dug up from the local area which was known as Bomb Alley during the war. There is a good tea room at the museum and another in the village which serves the legions of ramblers walking all or part of the Pilgrims Way from Winchester through to Canterbury and on down to the coast.

Worth making a pilgrimage for!

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Vann in Hambledon, Surrey is one of those conundrum gardens, should we tell others about it or should we jealously guard it for ourselves? Well, our better side won out and this is a gem of garden that you must not miss. Delightful now in springtime with its glow of massed bulbs, and promise of much, much more later in the season.

The Caröe family have owned the house for around a hundred years, with the five-acre garden spreading out from three sides of the property divided loosely into different areas with yew hedges and structured beds. The style is more formal nearer to the house, before extending out to the naturalistic woodland. It is beautiful Arts and Crafts style garden, and if you think it feels familiar, then you are probably correct, there are design elements by Gertrude Jekyll including the unique water garden, believed to be the only water garden Jekyll ever designed, laid out and planted. Jekyll lived not far away in Munstead Wood.

“The Yew Walk, with a rill and twin borders enclosed by tall hedges, is reminiscent of Jekyll and Lutyens’ work at Hestercombe,” says Mary Caröe. “In fact, that is particularly special in spring, with massed crocuses, pulmonarias and erysimums.”

And she should know!

Vann, Hambledon GU8 4EF. The garden is open today through to Sunday 12^th May, 10am – 6pm and Sunday 9 June – Saturday 15 June 10am – 6pm.

Also open every Wednesday from April – July 2013 for the National Gardens Scheme and other selected days (see more details on the website). Admission £5, children free. For more information, see http://www.vanngarden.co.uk

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Some of England’s rarest treasures are now on display at the Quadriga Gallery in Wellington Arch, Hyde Park Corner. English Heritage is marking the centenary of the Ancient Monuments Act thorough out the year and this is the second of four exhibitions. The parliamentary Act recognised the state’s duty to protect historic sites and relics –we are supremely grateful for their foresight.

One of the items on display is a bronze steelyard weight in the form of a bearded satyr discovered at Richborough Roman fort near Sandwich in Kent. Richborough was the first Roman fort built in Britain under the orders of Aulus Plautius Commander of the Roman army which invaded Britain in 43 and was known at the time as Rutupiae. 

Richborough continued in importance through the ages; it became a secret World War I installation  used to ferry troops and supplies to the trenches. After the war it silted up and became disused. It was revived in World War II and part of the Mulberry Harbour installation, used in the Normandy landings, was built there. Today the ruins of the fort are another English Heritage site and well worth a visit down to this lovely corner of Kent – and you just know what you are going to have to have for lunch – courtesy of the 4th Earl!

The Wellington Arch was built to commemorate the victories of the Duke of Wellington whose country seat as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports was Walmer Castle just down the road from Sandwich – preserved by – you’ve guessed it – English Heritage, why not spend a day in Kent this weekend.

Just in case it has slipped your memory:-   A  steelyard is a straight-beam balance with arms of unequal length incorporating a counterweight which slides along the calibrated longer arm to counterbalance the load and indicate its weight.

Steelyards of different sizes were used to weigh loads ranging from ounces to tons. A small steelyard could be a foot or less in length and thus conveniently used as a portable device that merchants and traders could use to weigh small ounce-sized items of merchandise.  The largest steelyards were three stories tall and used to weigh fully laden horse-drawn carts!

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Yesterday the Rt Hon Maria Miller MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, launched the tourism partnership strategy for Britain which aims to welcome 40 million overseas visitors by 2020, spending £31.5 billion.

There are four key objectives to achieving the strategy:

• Build on Britain’s improved international image
• Increase distribution through the travel trade
• Broaden the product range on offer
• Make it easier to get to Britain.

Last year’s figures were exceptional, 31 million visitors spending £18.6 billion, the new strategy looks to develop that by almost 30% in six years.

VisitBritain’s focus for 2013/14 is to maintain the awareness created by the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games and Jubilee celebrations.

The GREAT Britain marketing campaign will target the strongly performing growth markets of Brazil, China, India and the Gulf along with the established markets of USA, France and Germany.

A £2 million, two-year partnership with Emirates to promote Britain overseas was announced yesterday. The deal will include a combination of marketing in kind and cash payments. Emirates cover a vast network of routes and destinations across South East Asia, Australia, India and the GCC and offer regional gateways across Britain.

As part of the growth strategy VisitBritain officially launched the new regional hub in Dubai to reach across the GCC including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Jeddah, Kuwait City and Qatar.

Travel and tourism is a wonderful industry to be involved in right now, few others have such growth potential and South East Tour Guides  look forward to playing our part in keeping the Great in Britain!

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