The Duke’s Theatre Company’s production of Macbeth offers a dynamic reimagining of Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Known for their bold and innovative interpretations, the company brings a contemporary edge to the dark tale of ambition, murder, and madness. Director Robert Shaw Cameron (Coronation Street, Regents Park Open Air Theatre, Sheffield Crucible) and designer Jessica Curtis (Hampstead Theatre, Almeida Theatre, Royal National Theatre) make a production with a cast of six industry leading actors. With a strong focus on the psychological unravelling of the protagonists, this adaptation takes The Duke’s into a new era of open-air Summer touring Friday 30th May 7pm Saturday 31 May 7pm
Blog
Bridgepoint Music presents: Royal Opera House Flute, Viola and Harp Trio
Katherine Baker, flute, Amelie Roussel, viola and Lucy Wakeford, harp, all principal players in the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House come to Fairlight Hall to play a programme featuring Debussy’s trio written for this ensemble and an arrangment of Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet. Sunday 27 April 2025 11.30am – 12.30pm Tickets £24.54 Under 18s FREE
Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition 2024: Hall Blooms with Floral Splendor Thanks to Dedicated Garden Team
This month has been dominated by the Hastings International Piano Concerto Competition 2024. The event lasts from 22nd February to 2nd March and happens every other year. The garden and estate teams have been busy working hard, getting the site weeded and preened in advance of the guests and contestants’ arrival, many of who will be staying at the hall for the duration of the event. With plenty of guests at the Hall, there is a need for a regular supply of flowers for the house, all cut and sourced from the garden. Thankfully we have a good show of Read More
Navigating the Winter Garden: Challenges and Pruning Tips for Frosty Nights and Wet Days
This month has seen many frosty nights and beautifully sunny days but also wet and damp spells. Several storms’ systems have also passed through, making it a challenging time of year to be out in the garden. On frosty days, when the ground is frozen, cutting back perennials is impossible. On very wet days, working on sodden soil damages it and causes compaction. So, a good job to do is wet and cold march is to pruning our roses and wall shrubs. ROSE PRUNING This month the gardeners have been pruning roses on the Haha borders. Climbing roses need pruning Read More
Winter’s Embrace: Nurturing Gardens Through the Chill at Fairlight
Back in November, the garden team noticed that all the holly trees were festooned with sparkling red berries, we joked at the time that it was a sign of the hard winter to come. With cold weather in mind the gardeners have been careful to prepare for the worst the winter can throw at us. Firstly, dismantling the finished container displays around the site. Bringing in any plants susceptible to frost into the heated glasshouse, or tuck under cold frames. Any plants remaining have either been draped with fleece or left to hold their own against winters worst. At Fairlight, Read More
Garden Chronicles: Surviving Storm Ciaran, Enjoying Autumn Colours and Preparing the Garden for Winter
The beginning of this month began with storm Ciaran, hitting much of the Southern coast of England, an Amber weather warning was issued, where wind speeds could exceed 85 mph in coastal areas. As a result, we shut the garden. We were expecting lots of trees and branches to come crashing down in the strong wind, but in reality, we faired the storm well. Only one or two small trees came down, most of the debris was leaf and small twigs. The gravel paths across the site, now have deep channels in them, as water finds the path of least Read More
Preparing for the Spectacular: Behind the Scenes of our Halloween Open Day and Garden Preparations!
This month we have spent considerable amount of time preparing for the half term Halloween Open Day. It’s only the second time we have opened the garden this year, but it good practice for next year where we will be open once a month from March till November. Aside from the team working hard to weed all the paths, edge the lawns, tidy flowerbeds and finish cutting the meadows, time has been spent setting out and creating the ghost trail with twelve suitable spooky plants being chosen, plus sourcing and arranging pumpkins to go around our autumn pot displays in Read More
Splashes of Autumn: A Colourful September in the Garden
It’s been a very colourful month. The weather has been mild and warm, and many plants and flower beds that were looking tired last month, are now resprouting and gaining a second flush of leaf and flower, especially the meadows and lawns. Half of the meadows in the garden were cut mid-August and the rest in September. In the Walled Garden Currently the Walled Garden is full of a variety of pumpkins and squashes. Dried and lifted onions and garlic can be seen drying in the glasshouse. Cucumbers and tomatoes are still being harvested, even some late potatoes. Purple sprouting Read More
Head Gardener’s August Blog
This month we were really pleased to open Fairlight Hall Gardens to raise money for the National Garden Scheme. We opened on the weekend of 19th/20th August. This was our first garden opening for 2023 and it was very successful. Visitors were welcomed on both days by sun and blue skies. We had a pop up café and a shop selling Fairlight Hall honey, jams and chutneys, vegetables and of course, our plants and flowers. It was great to see so many people enjoying the garden together, to help raise money for the National Garden Schemes selected charities. In fact Read More
Head Gardener’s July Blog
It has been a while since I have written a garden blog. These past three months, have been a bit of a whirlwind in the gardens. The gardeners were playing catch up from the unseasonably cool spring, and for much of the past two or three months the garden received very little decent rain for two or three months. So as you can imagine everything was much reduced in size and not at its full magnificence. The garden team had been working together towards to deadline; a large family wedding in early July was all anyone was focusing on. Thankfully Read More