Home to the Dawes family for over 300 years, Mount Ephraim is home to ten glorious acres of terraced gardens featuring a Japanese rock garden, lake, water garden, arboretum, and a spectacular grass maze.
Open Wednesdays to Sundays and Bank Holidays between April and September with a tea room on site for garden visitors.
Mount Ephraim Gardens, Staple St, Faversham ME13 9TX
01227 751496
The beautiful Georgian house of Belmont set in beautiful parkland, has stunning views of the rolling Kent countryside. It is a completely unspoiled and distinctive example of the work of the architect Samuel Wyatt.
Belmont contains fabulous mementos of the family’s history and travels, paintings, furniture, Indian silverware, and perhaps the finest private clock collection in the country.
The Gardens at Belmont are full of interest throughout every season. The Kitchen Garden was originally designed by Lady Arabella Lennox-Boyd and has beautiful Victorian Greenhouses, along with figs, hops, soft fruits, and traditional apple and pear varieties.
Belmont Park, Throwley Rd, Throwley, Faversham ME13 0HH
01795 890202
The Alexander Centre has space to hire for all kinds of activities and events – with its beautiful, heritage meeting rooms, large multi-purpose hall, convivial communal lounge, and charming garden.
They also offer a varied programme of events throughout the year. Or ‘Work@theAlex’ with offices to lease on the upper floors and co-working space on the ground floor.
17 Preston St, Faversham ME13 8NZ
01795 591691
A small, rustic farm devoted entirely to micro and miniature animals. Mingle with the animals free-ranging around the orchard – you can even arrange to take them for a walk.
Lower Road, Buckland, Faversham, Kent, ME13 0TP
07929 871465
Ten acres of landscaped gardens in an area of outstanding natural beauty. Towering clipped yew hedges, an extensive rock garden, a woodland garden, herbaceous borders, and fine trees are just a few of the delights to be found at Doddington Place Gardens.
Church Lane, Doddington near Sittingbourne, ME9 0BB
01795 866101
At Brogdale Farm, they are looking forward to life returning to normal, with the lifting of restrictions. The staff will still be doing everything they can to keep guests safe, but with better weather on the way, we think Brogdale Farm is the perfect place to grab some essentials or just get away from it all.
There’s plenty to do at Brogdale in the great outdoors, whether you’re visiting with family or friends:
Why not make a day of it and get a tasty lunch from The Courtyard Café, or as you’re treating yourself, try one of their delicious homemade cakes?
After all of those outside activities, we believe the best way to unwind and slow down is to visit Country Practice. For the ultimate in relaxation, why not book yourself a treatment with this popular holistic therapy centre? A massage treatment with hot stones must be the ultimate stressbuster, or you could try a holistic facial or some relaxing reiki. Choose from their full list of treatments here.
Top it all off with a new haircut from Vicki Lord Hair, who joined the Brogdale Family last year. Vicki specialises in cutting, colouring, styling and braiding. Book in online here.
Your pets don’t need to miss out either. After a potter around the marketplace, they’ll be ready for a post-lockdown pamper as well. Lush Puppies offers a wide range of grooming services for dogs. Run by an experienced, qualified groomer who provides one-to-one grooming for dogs of all shapes and sizes in a happy, safe environment. Book them in with Lush Puppies here.
The treats don’t have to end there. Before you leave, stop in at their shops for some fresh local produce to enjoy at home after your day of treatments.
After nearly 18 months of restrictions, we’ve all learnt to appreciate our own outdoor spaces. Get your garden in tip top shape by visiting Grow at Brogdale. Browse their website for their full range of fruit trees, vegetable seeds and plants. Grow also offer advice through their online shop, emails and telephone.
Click here for details of all businesses at Brogdale Farm.
With thousands of people moving to Faversham, it’s more important than ever to make sure they are aware of and encouraged to support local businesses and attractions. We’ve been working with a group of local organisations on a postcard campaign to promote Faversham. This comprises a pack of attractive postcards (one for each participating business) to be distributed to 1,000 new build properties along with a wider distribution to local accommodation providers and estate agents in particular.
Hopefully by working collaboratively and splitting the cost, this could be an affordable option for many local businesses to reach new residents and visitors.
Overview:
Timings:
Price:
If you’re interested in being part of this and are a business of interest to visitors and shoppers – please email [email protected] by end of 2nd July 2021.
Fabulous photo by Jon Munn for Capture Faversham.
With its medieval warehouses and attractive businesses – Standard Quay is becoming a very popular place for people to eat, drink and shop in Faversham.
The quayside destination is just a short walk from the town’s historic Market Place down the gorgeous Abbey Street. It also boasts beautiful views across the Creek to Faversham Marshes.
Standard Quay is very keen to support the businesses located on its lovely site. It also wants to promote Faversham as a wonderful place to visit, live and shop. To this end, they have kindly lent their support to Fiver Fest Faversham.
The fabulous Fiver Fest offers you can pick up at Standard Quay include:
Standard Quay itself contains some very appealing businesses including a number of antiques and vintage businesses, selling everything from old Beano albums, to dining tables, to vintage tools and everything between. Pierre & Dom has a fine selection of vintage pictures, paintings, photos and prints. Aladdin’s Cave, as its name implies, includes an eclectic collection including tea sets, vintage clothing, jewellery and more.
There are also a number of shops selling fresh produce including the Butcher of Brogdale, Herman’s Plaice Fishmongers and Salt & Spice, which as well as blending its own spice mixes, sells wonderful fresh fruit and veg.
If you need a break and fancy some breakfast, lunch or tea – then the Secret Garden Café at Standard Quay is a lovely spot to enjoy freshly prepared, locally sourced food. If the weather is being kind, there’s a peaceful outdoor garden where you can enjoy your meal. The café is dog-friendly too – ideal if you’re also enjoying a walk along the Creek.
Papa Bianco’s delicious, freshly prepared pizzas are an extremely popular attraction at Standard Quay where you can sit and watch the sun set over the Creek while enjoying your meal. Both What Now? and Papa Bianco offer a lovely spot for a drink or two on the Quay too.
Parking at Standard Quay is free and many visitors use it as a base to explore Faversham, as the town centre is only a ten minute walk away. Or if you’re feeling adventurous, you can hire a Surrey Bike and explore the area by pedal-power!
For more information on Standard Quay visit http://standardquay.co.uk/
Fiver Fest is organised at a national level by Totally Locally, it’s a celebration our independent high streets and businesses which, during lockdown, have proven that more than ever, our local businesses play a pivotal role in the wellbeing of our communities.
FIVER FEST is the chance for independent businesses to use their collective power to encourage people back to our town centres and to use local businesses. To say thank you to customers who supported them during lockdown and to prove once again, that the small guys can compete with the online giants & the supermarkets. In fact, they beat them hands down in many ways, but most of all their contribution to our local economies.
There are over 100 towns involved in this year’s Fiver Fest, but in Kent there are only two towns taking part and they are both in Swale (Totally Locally Sheerness and Fiver Fest Faversham). This gives us a chance to target the “staycation” and day visitors market that we all know will be very busy this year and promote via Visit Faversham, Visit Swale, Visit Kent and beyond what is going on during the fortnight, show your offers to the visitors market as well as locals and showcase what you have to offer throughout the remainder of 2021.
What can I do to promote my business?
What are you doing to promote my business
Fiver Fest Faversham is run in a different way to most of the other towns taking part. Other towns organise Fiver Fest either directly from the participating businesses or the have organisations such as Traders Groups, Business Investment District or council run Shop Local initiatives giving them access to money and resources.
Fiver Fest Faversham is organised by InFaversham who are a team of volunteers that mostly own noncustomer facing businesses and have no direct benefit from taking part. Why do we do it? We do it because we believe in the shop local message and we believe it has an impact on the local economy which is a benefit to everyone. Plus, we love all things Faversham.
We have been very lucky this time in that we have been able to get support from Faversham Town Council and have sponsorship from businesses who also believe this is a worthy event and love Faversham. Thanks to William Property Management, Brogdale Farm, Standard Quay and Faversham Flooring we have been able to provide more benefits to the businesses taking part in the event this time around.
Here is a list of what we have provided so far:
We hope you are really enjoying being part of Fiver Fest Faversham and would love to hear your views. If you have any questions or thoughts please email us at [email protected]
When you think of independent businesses on your local high street, you could probably be forgiven for not thinking of letting or estate agents straight away. However, certainly here in Faversham, there is one agent that is very much part of the community.
Without William Property Management stepping in to sponsor the first Fiver Fest Faversham last year, we wouldn’t have got this initiative off the ground. For the second Fiver Fest fortnight, whilst we managed to gain the support of Faversham Town Council and additional sponsors, we are delighted to welcome William Property Management back as our main sponsor again.
To find out why they are so behind the Fiver Fest iniative, Fiver Fest Faversham organiser Liz Jeffery sat down with Mark Greenwood who is the Managing Director of William Property Management.
Mark, why did you decide to sponsor Fiver Fest Faversham for a second time?
When I heard about the Fiver Fest initiative I thought it was a fantastic concept. It’s a good idea generally, but after the effects of Covid and town centre access restrictions, businesses really did need support and they continue to do so, so sponsoring for a second time was a no brainer for me.
I really like the whole £5 message, it makes people think about how their spending directly impacts the local economy and the whole event really does create a community spirit and a real buzz around the town.
Have been involved in supporting the local community in other ways too?
Yes! Apart from trying to shop local where possible and attend as many events as I can (when they are able to run) I was also a founder member of the Faversham Traders Association.
Do you have a £5 offer to run during Fiver Fest?
We’ve created our own £5 offer, giving new landlords their first month’s property management fees for £5 if they sign up during the Fiver Fest fortnight.
About William Property Management
William Property Management was established in 2009, after noticing the need for a good letting service that was approachable and transparent. They are now recognised as the leading letting agent in Faversham due to their outstanding customer service. They have been awarded GOLD by the prestigious British Property Awards for three years running, judged the Best Letting Agent in Faversham.
To find out more about William Property Management’s commitment to outstanding customer service and to find out how they can help you, please visit https://www.williampropertymanagement.com