Houses & Gardens of Sussex
Arundel | Michelham Priory
Firle Place| Pashley Manor
Charleston | St Mary's House
Great Dixter
Dates & Prices
June 2024
£1140 per person for a double/twin room
£140 single supplement
Deposit £180
Accommodation
Deans Place Hotel,(4*) Alfriston
Including bed & breakfast and four evening meals
Group Size
Between 9 and 12 people
What’s included
Tickets and entrance to all houses and gardens.
Guided tour with afternoon tea at St Mary’s House.
Staying at a country hotel in the delightful village of Alfriston we visit Michelham Priory and explore the gardens of Pashley Manor. The fine collection of paintings at Arundel Castle and the famous gardens at Great Dixter will be viewed and we will also call in at Monk’s House, the home of Virginia Woolf. We visit Firle Place and the astonishing painted room at St Mary’s House and Gardens.
Day 1
Guests arrive at Deans Place Hotel during the afternoon. The hotel offers traditional comfort and relaxing facilities. A visit to Alfriston is followed by a drinks reception and dinner in the hotel.
Day 2
The day begins with a visit to Michelham Priory with its remarkable tranquil gardens set on an island around a Tudor manor house. We enjoy a tour and time for lunch in the barn. After lunch we visit Firle Place, an eighteenth-century house known for its old master paintings by Van Dyck, Rubens and de Koninck, with English portraits by Reynolds, Zoffany, Gainsborough and Lawrence. Today the spirit of Bloomsbury is celebrated with visits to Monk’s House, the home of Virginia and Leonard Woolf, also Berwick Church and its remarkable interior.
We return to the hotel for time to relax before dinner.
Day 3
After breakfast we travel to Arundel Castle seat of the Duke of Norfolk. Much restored, expanded and developed over the centuries the castle retains its Norman keep and houses a fine art collection with paintings by Gainsborough, Van Dyck and Reynolds. In the afternoon we travel to Bramber to visit St Mary’s House and Gardens. It includes the famous Elizabethan Painted Room – a unique example of trompe l’oeil at the time. Dinner will be served at the hotel
Day 4
Today we visit Pashley Manor, one of England’s finest gardens for a tour of the garden followed by time for lunch in the excellent café. In the afternoon we visit Great Dixter, home of the famous gardening writer, Christopher Lloyd. The gardens are famous for their topiary, mixed borders, orchard and wild-flower meadow.
Dinner follows at the hotel.
Day 5
Our tour ends after a leisurely breakfast before checkout.
Deans Place Hotel is within 2 miles of Seaford station or Berwick station on the line to Eastbourne.
There are good walking opportunities on the South Downs and Alfriston village is close by.