Today we took advantage of the National Heritage open day which was running over the weekend. Many National Heritage, National Trust, private parks and gardens, and other places and buildings were opened to the public for free. So we had a little itinerary of wanting to go to Painshill Park and Claremont Gardens but ran out of time to do both. It was a changeable day on the weather front, with bright skies one moment and then sudden downpours. We headed to Painshill first and got there later than wanted. I think normally the entrance is around a tenner for adults and we could tell the place was going to be busy, as many of the cars were parked in the overflow fields. After so many recent walks across commons, heaths and wood it was different to be in a neat yet not overbearing landscaped gardens. We choose the longer walk which takes you past redwoods, a small vineyard (reminiscent of California), past follies, across several bridges, Turkish tents, a gothic tower, past renaissance residence, a hermits house, alongside open water, water mill and finishing off in the daydream of a Crystal grotto. It’s all rather pleasant and with a laid-back tempo, and an ideal place to laze around the water’s edge to have a picnic in the summer. Though you better not get caught short as loos are at either end of the gardens, and the prettiest spots are in the middle. This landscape garden is really nice, but due to a lack of infrastructure, it won’t be possible to do the full route for those with accessibility needs. It’s quite obvious this place needs a fair old whack to keep it going, and you can see where the funding is short when paths suddenly stop and you continue across the grass. As we were tight for time, we popped to Cobham Mill and saw that quaint English tradition of yellow rubber duck racing. It’s quite interesting to see how serious people took it, as hundreds of bright yellow ducks drift past the mill and round the bend. It is not surprising as the top prize was £300! It was a shame we arrived late to Cobham, as it felt like we came to a party after it had ended, with lots of stalls in the process of being packed away and the only sign that something else happened was the occasional gawkish child with face paint stalking the high street.
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