Amberley Amble and Gardens Gander

The village of Amberley achieves its celebrated beauty without any definite focus or special buildings. The setting, though, on a ridge overlooking the River Arun Wildbrooks and backed by the South Downs, is truly striking. The village itself is made up of long, loose, pretty perspectives of cottages that line a quadrilateral of lanes and lead outwards, one in particular to the 12th Century church and the 14th Century castle.

These quiet lanes will be much busier on Sunday 10th June, however, when the biennial opening of the village's gardens takes place (see the event's website here). A fee of £6 gains entry to twelve gardens of different sizes and styles (from informal cottage gardens to sweeping lawns dotted with sculpture) with the proceeds going to Action Medical Research for Children.

There will be no set plan for visiting the gardens and we won't go round in a big group: you're welcome to go wherever and with whomever you choose. You're also welcome to leave early or later, but there will be an agreed meeting place and time should you wish to depart as part of a group, perhaps to catch a particular train. In fact, you don't even need to book on this event to see the gardens of course; we'll just happily bump into you in the village! 

If you do come by train (or car but want a little more exercise), Amberley Railway Station is some way outside of the village, so we'll have a pleasant short walk along the River Arun to get there. Please see the route here.

(Images are either from Google Image Search and are labelled 'Free to use and share', or are courtesy of Simon Cross who ran this event two years ago.)