As it was another nice day, though somewhat cooler, we set off for another National Trust property, Sheffield Park Gardens.
Sheffield Park Garden is a landscape garden five miles east of Haywards Heath. It has a great deal of history associated with it, being first mentioned in the Domesday Book. In August 1538, Henry VIII was entertained here. By 1700, there was a Deer Park, avenues of trees and established lawns. In the late 1700s, the house was remodelled in the fashionable Gothic style and Capability Brown was commissioned to landscape the garden. Humphrey Repton followed Brown in 1789–1790. By 1885, an arboretum was being established, consisting of both exotic and native trees; some of the original trees are still there.
During World War II the house and garden became the headquarters for a Canadian armoured division, and there were Nissan huts in the garden and woods. Like many estates (including the one where I now live) it had to be sold after the war. The National Trust was able to buy some of the estate in 1954, and there have been some subsequent additions, so it is now 265 acres.
The original four lakes form the centrepiece of the garden, so these pictures will be rather watery. There are also waterfalls, some of which are not always turned on because there has been drought in the area for several years. This is a little bridge over one of the waterfalls between two of the lakes.
The lakes are large, so it takes a while to walk round them. This is view of the same bridge from the other side of the lake. It also gives some impression of the variety of the trees, a few of which are just starting their autumn colours. As it was a still day, the tree shapes are refected beautifully in the water.
The lake in the picture below has fewer reflections because of all the water lilies. That strange looking thing in the middle at the back is a huge fountain; we had both forgotten our cameras, so were relying on phone cameras, which have no zoom, and the only view of the fountain is from across the lake, so it is rather small in my photo I'm afraid.
The fountain was only running from 12pm until 1pm on the day we were there, and this photo was taken about 12.59 - it's a very big place and we had to trot quite a distance to get there in time to see it at all.
After we had eaten our sandwiches, the sun came out. Below is a photo of another of the lakes, looking even more beautiful in the sunshine. You can see that more of the trees here are starting their autumn colours. There is such a variety of shape and colour around the lakes you can see it has all been designed by a master.
Many of the trees in the park are clearly very old and are absolutely huge. I made Paul stand beside the one below for a size comparison - it is one of the larger ones. The redwoods and wellingtonias are much taller of course, but I can't think of a way of photographing those, they are so tall.
At the far side of the park, through a gate you get access to a historic cricket pitch. I understand this is the one first laid out in 1876 by the third Earl of Sheffield. It was used on 12 May 1884 for the first ever cricket match between England and Australia. (The Australian team won).
When we felt we had walked enough, we enquired the way to the Bluebell Railway, which is reasonably nearby, and drove there.
The Bluebell Railway is a heritage steam train which runs from Sheffield Park station to the outskirts of East Grinstead, taking about half an hour. The three stations it uses were all built in 1882 and are apparently frequently seen on films and TV. Sheffield Park station has been restored to the Victorian period, when it was originally built.
The other two stations have been restored to a later date - Horsted Keynes to the 1920s and Kingscote to the 1950s.
We didn't manage a trip on the train, or there might have been more photographs. But we missed the last train, unfortunately, as it had left at 3pm. However, we were not too late to see a steam train, so there is one photograph.
We do intend to take a trip on it, it's all just a matter of arranging it. On the way home, we visited some friends who live not far away, and we thought we might plan a dinner trip with them, or possibly even a Sunday lunch - the railway does these at the weekend. So that's something to look forward to - though, if we have a dinner trip in the next few months, it will be too dark for many photographs!
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