Sheffield Park Garden National Trust, East Sussex

In March 2014 we headed out one Sunday, after lunch for an exploration of our local area to see what we might find. With no fixed plan in mind, we travelled for just under an hour in the direction of Uckfield and stumbled upon the National Trust's Sheffield Park and Gardens. Of course, as devoted NT fans, we headed in for a look around and found a really lovely formal garden set around four lakes. It was a particular delight for us to find influences of the great garden architect Capability Brown as we live in a Capability Brown designed home.

March 2014 on the left and February 2016 on the right

The kids did what they do best and climbed trees, ran and played games together and posed for my photos (I'm so lucky they humour me). The ducks and swans love to be fed and there are some really unusual trees and shrubs in the gardens. After a couple of hours, we realised it was getting late and we needed a drink so off we went to the coach house for a very tasty cream tea and by the time we finished we realised it wasn't practical for us to now explore the 250 acres of parkland around the garden.

We vowed that we would come back another time to explore the parkland and enjoy the wildlife, meadows, springs and woodland play trail that the National Trust always do so well. Time passed and we visited lots more local NT sites and never made it back to explore the parkland, so when we were faced with the same kind of circumstance on Sunday last we decided we would head over to Sheffield Park and have a good explore.

Just one issue when we got there Sunday, I hadn't packed any wellies and whilst it had been a bright and beautiful day when we visited in March 2014, this February was awful - cold, wet and exceedingly muddy. With our sensible heads on, we decided another look round the garden would be a better idea than venturing into the parklands.

Let me share with you some photos of the gardens, some from 2014 and more recent ones too. I think perhaps we need to visit in the Autumn as well as I can imagine the colours will be magnificent. This is one of the beauties of living in a variable climate like Britain, we do the seasons really well when it comes to nature!

Even at this time of the year, you can see the hints in these pictures of how fabulous the colours are going to be as the season's change.

The kids were given a specific map for them and it gave them ideas of where they could join in with the National Trusts fabulous 50 things to do before you are 11 3/4 initiative.

If you fancy a trip to Sheffield Park with your children then one of the school holidays is a great idea as there is always trails and activities. I see they are hosting a Cadbury's Easter egg hunt from 25th March - 10th April 2016.

We also visited in 2019 without the children and I posted about it over here.

Why not pin this post for later?

Disclosure: I was offered some free entry passes for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.