Preparations for the 2025 Arlington Bluebell Walk & Farm Trails

We have to now decide what five weeks we will be open, so the participating charities can plan ahead, and brochures can be designed and printed.  Fixing the dates is a very crucial decision, to ensure large numbers of visitors come, so the charities maximise their takings. When it works right it is pure luck!  Will this spring be late as in 2023, early as it was this year, or remember ‘The Beast from the East’ in 2016?

In the 1980’s we only opened during the month of May, and in 1986 the last day we opened was Sunday 1^st June!  We were so fortunate this year, in that we nearly missed the anemones as the bluebells quickly emerged, but then we were grateful for a couple of weeks of colder weather that held the bluebells, so it was only the last week when they were past their best.

The current dates I have planned wil be:

Friday 4^th April to Monday 5^th May 2025

with my fingers crossed!

This year we undertook major building works, by expanding the kitchen area and moving the Animal Barn, so this year we are just consolidating, whilst trying as usual to improve the visitor experience and supporting the charities.

The map we give out to visitors has not been updated since 2015, so some significant changes are planned.  Our neighbour at Parkwood Farm has started building his state of the art rotary milking parlour, so the route to this farm will be altered.  We hope that the new parlour will be in operation by next April, but nothing can be guaranteed.  It will hold 60 cows at a time and speed the process of twice daily milking, but acclimatising the cows to where they are going to be milked, I understand, is not an easy process, so I send my best wishes to the Appleton Family and their staff.

You may wonder how some of the various Walks received their names: Red, Blue, Yellow, White and Green.  Back in the early days before we could afford to purchase fancy signs, we used to cut arrows from the various coloured fertilizer bags and fix them along the Walks!  It is time to move on, and the new map will feature changed names:  Blue Walk will be Bluebell Walk;  White Walk will be Lagoon Walk;  Yellow Walk will be Primrose Farm Walk; Green Walk will be Parkwood Farm Walk and we are removing the Red Walk.

Some of the existing numbers on the various gates will alter to try and make them more logical.  The six exit points from Beatons Wood will change from numbers to letters of the alphabet, so we hope these changes will make the Trails (Walks) more user friendly, especially for those making their first vist.

Planning the future of the Bluebell Walk and Bates Green Garden

I mentioned last month I would start to share some thoughts how the legacies of both Carolyn and I will continue into the future, but this being of such importance, it may take a month or two before I and my professional advisors decide on the best way forward.