Hole Park sits quietly in the Wealden countryside with an extensive 16 acre garden and an additional 10 acres of beautiful woodlands. The gardens are laid out in a series of rooms divided by immaculately trimmed yew hedges. Round every corner there are surprises including sculptures, the standard wisterias which flower in May, the beautifully planted long borders, the sundial garden and the exotic border. Water features including ponds, rills and streams add to the relaxing nature of the gardens.
Hole Park is a family-owned estate which has been in the Barham family for the past four generations. Formalised gardens combine with natural woodland. These extensive gardens were developed, laid out and planted by Colonel Barham, the great-grandfather of the present owner, in the years between the two World Wars.
Opening Times
- Open every day 11am to 6pm from Easter Monday 1st April 2024 to Sunday 30th June (Only Wealden Times Midsummer Fair ticket holders will be allowed into the gardens on 6, 7 and 8 June 2024)
- Open Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1st July to 27th October, plus Sundays in October. https://www.mytenterden.co.uk/events/autumn-colours-at-hole-park-gardens-listing-1016-132443.aspx
- The Coach House tea room will open on Garden open days from 11am to 5pm (which is earlier than the gardens which close at 6pm)
Admission Prices- Online Advance Purchase:
- Adults £11.00 Children £2.50 (5 – 17 years) * discount applies online
- On the day Purchase
- Adults £12.00 Children £2.50 (5 – 17 years) Card or Cash Payment Welcomed.
- Group visits available any time by arrangement. Please email events@holepark.com for more details.
- Adult garden season tickets £30 children £8 (unlimited visits on opening days)
- Dogs on leads are welcome when gardens are open.
- Pre-booked guided garden tours available with either Edward Barham (Owner) or Quentin Stark (Head Gardener). All tours can include light refreshments (tea, coffee & cakes/scones). Please email events@holepark.com for more information and prices
- Gardeners World concession vouchers are valid on normal opening days but not including NGS Charity Days, Wealden Times MidSummer Fair or other special events.
Spring Highlights
Step into a wonderland of color and fragrance! If you visit the gardens in early April, you'll be greeted by a rainbow of crocuses, narcissi, daffodils, and cherry blossoms. Stroll down the 'Camelia Walk' and bask in the beauty of hellebores. The meadows and woodland floor will be a dreamy sea of primroses and scillas. And don't forget the magnificent magnolia trees that will be blooming all over the gardens and woodlands.
May is a grand time to take a walk in the gardens, too! Admire the tulips, roses, and clematis, and be sure to stop by the vineyard garden to marvel at the impressive standard wisterias. Feast your eyes on the bright rhododendrons and azaleas. And if you're lucky, you'll spot some delicate wild orchids or 'camassia', with their spires and star-shaped flowers, blooming in the meadows.
Summer Highlights
Visitors to the gardens in the summer months can see the recently renovated long herbaceous borders. Half the border has been replanted in the original pink and blue planting scheme first used by the late Christopher Lloyd when he first designed the border at Hole Park. The remainder of the border was replanted using the original colour scheme of yellow and white.
Late Summer and Autumn Highlights
The late flowering agapanthus ‘Hole Park Blue’ and colourful exotic border with its cannas and dahlias are an impressive sight in late summer before the reds, yellows and golds of autumn appear bringing colour and interest to the gardens in October.
A circular network of hard paths enables visitors of all ages, including those who require a wheelchair, to enjoy the gardens. Wheelchairs may be reserved free of charge and there are full disability WC facilities.
Light lunches and delicious homemade cakes are available in the coach house where apple juice, local beer and homemade jam and honey produced from the fruit and bees on the Hole Park Estate can be purchased. There is also a small plant stall next to the coach house.
Hole Park is situated 4 miles west of Tenterden on the B2086 between Rolvenden and Benenden.
