Pembury House Clayton opens its gardens for charity

By Jane Baker

Over 40 years ago, when we first moved to Clayton from Brighton, the garden at Pembury House was daunting. We did not dream that 10 years later, we would open our garden! We still enjoy sharing the garden today and remain a part of the National Garden Scheme Snowdrop Festival. NGS beneficiary charities include MacMillan, Marie Curie, Hospices UK & Parkinson’s.

In the early days, cake did not seem so important as it is now! The cheering effect of our winter garden has become key. Visitors enjoy cake and coffee, which is included in the admission price. In 2023, at Pembury House, we raised nearly £9,000 for the charities. By simply adding up the takings for each of the years we have opened, we have raised over £142,000. Over those years, we have had such joy from welcoming over 22,000 visitors.

In 2024, the garden is already looking good with lots of promise for the future and the cake is a work in progress! Tickets must be pre-booked on the NGS website, using the link from our website: www.pemburyhouse.co.uk
Please bring cash if you wish to purchase plants, snowdrop mugs, bags and robins!

Parking will only be at the recreation ground in Clayton, opposite the Church. The only visitor entrance is from our back gate onto the footpath which runs by the railway line from Clayton to Hassocks station. This will be signed from the car park. We look forward to meeting you in our garden. Your visit will change lives.

Harmony surrounding Pembury House gardens in Hassocks

You may have glimpsed a sea of snowdrops from the cinder track at Clayton, but did you know those dappled brick paths curve away to a wider secret garden? Or perhaps, thanks to the National Garden Scheme, you’ve been one of those lucky visitors who’ve benefited from a restorative spring visit. Deirdre Huston chatted with Jane and Nick Baker, to find out how they nurtured the gardens at Pembury House into a horticultural haven.

In 1983, they moved to Pembury House in Clayton. It was originally a three-bedroom house with an art déco fireplace in the dining room. “When we arrived,” says Jane, “I used to have terrible nightmares about the weeds whereas Nick saw the house and garden as a challenge.” Over the years, they’ve extended the house, in a style sympathetic to its origins and gardens, including the addition of a Victorian style glasshouse. Nick continues: “In those early days, I could come home and paint in the evenings, but then teaching changed.” Increased administration tasks, demands of parents and continuing governmental changes reduced their leisure time and, in 2006, the couple were pleased to retire. When they moved in, the garden was just mown grass with weed-ridden borders, alongside the cinder track. Over the years, they’ve added more land, making it three acres. The garden has evolved organically. “There was no real plan,” says Jane, ‘’except we knew we wanted to plant trees.” She remembers: “I used to drive to Heathfield and pick up slender tree seedlings or ‘whips’ and bring them home in the back of my orange VW beetle.” They would plant the trees on a Saturday, helped by old university friends. “In those days, in the winter, we’d have worn a balaclava and a woolly hat,” adds Nick. “It was much colder, then.” They planted a mixture of elm, oak, ash, alder, hornbeam and silver birch to create a balanced mixed woodland.

Jane and Nick have been welcoming visitors for 30 years. “Since 1992, when we started opening the garden, we’ve raised a total of £133,247 and there have been 21,624 adult visitors, 940 children and 292 dogs!” says Jane. They opened on the hottest day ever, the year their godson, Louis was born, and they also opened on the coldest day ever, one February! “It’s a lot of hard work just before you open,” says Nick, “so you get very tired.” As well as meeting challenges, they’ve learned how to make things run smoothly. Jane recalls: “The first year, we did the teas and there was parking on the village green. As it grew bigger, more people in Clayton helped, and we raised money for the church roof, too.”

To read more about Jane and Nick’s journey please pick up a copy of June’s Hassocks Life and turn to page 18.