Walmer Castle

The main focus for the trainee would be to work across all aspects of our site gaining experience in a very varied and diverse historical garden.

Walmer Castle, situated on the English Channel coast, is a well maintained garden of 10 acres within a 28 acre estate and is registered as Grade II listed. The Tudor era castle is the home of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and many historic figures of national importance have lived in the Castle, some of which have had a direct influence on the design of the gardens. The gardens have been developed between c 1790 and the present day and include decorative shrub borders, a woodland walk, chalk wildflower meadow, formal bedding, croquet lawn, a working kitchen, orchard & cutting garden, decorative glasshouses  and a double herbaceous border flanked by a mature cloud hedge. There is also the formal Queen Mothers Garden, designed by Penelope Hobhouse and presented to Her Majesty to mark her Birthday in 1997.

In 2016 an application was made to the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) in order to revive the Woodland and Paddock, which was laid out as a landscape garden by William Pitt in the late 18^th and early 19^th Century,  reopen the Glen quarry garden, introduce a woodland play trail, education building and café. This Project is due to be completed in Spring 2019.The trainee has an important role to support the maintenance of the associated on-going horticultural project works.

Placement opportunity: 1 year

Staff numbers: 6 full-time gardeners, 1 trainee and more than 35 volunteers

Ease of access: The nearest train station is Walmer, 15 minutes walk and served by the High Speed rail service from London St Pancras, local bus services from Deal alight opposite the Castle, there is a bike route running along the sea front to Deal, Sandwich and Ramsgate.

Walmer has some local shops but is one mile West of Deal which has banks, supermarkets and other amenities.

Accommodation: None