Winchelsea's Secret Gardens 2026
Thirteen private gardens hidden behind Winchelsea's medieval and Georgian house fronts open on one National Garden Scheme ticket for a single Saturday each July.
- When
- Where
Winchelsea village, East Sussex TN36 4EL. Tickets and maps from the village hall on the day.
- Info
Visit the National Garden Scheme listing for the latest details and ticket price.
Winchelsea is one of the most atmospheric medieval planned towns in England — a chequerboard street grid laid out in the 1290s on a hilltop two miles inland of its lost original. Behind the Georgian and weatherboarded fronts on those streets are private gardens that almost nobody sees, including several of the surviving thirteenth-century wine vaults whose vaulted cellars now open onto walled planting. For one Saturday each July, the National Garden Scheme opens thirteen of them on a single ticket, raising money for nursing and hospice charities.
At two miles from The River Haven, Winchelsea is the nearest event in our calendar — five minutes by car, an easy combine with a late-afternoon swim at Camber Sands or a Sunday-morning walk on the Brede levels. Tickets are day-of from the village hall; rooms in Rye fill quickly around NGS open weekends, so book ahead.
Stay at The River Haven
Winchelsea is a five-minute drive from The River Haven — the closest event in our calendar. Book early: the gardens open one day only, and a Saturday-night riverside dinner turns a single afternoon into a full weekend.
