Sunday was open day at Eastcote House Gardens, a place that I came to enjoy and visited often during the third lockdown winter months. Sunday marked their open day and features a classic car show, various stalls with items for sale, a bake sale, information about the history of the now-demolished Eastcote House, a plant sale, a book sale, and ice cream truck. The cafe was also open, as it normally is. The dovecote door was open so visitors could look inside, but no one was allowed to enter, and the stables were open with some crafty items for sale and information about Eastcote House Gardens.
The car show is located at the grounds, close to where the demolished house used to stand. The footprint of the house has been laid out in the grass. The event started at 11:00, and by the time I arrived at 11:30, it was already very busy. Unfortunately, the weather was not the best. The day before had been beautiful with warmth and sunshine, but it sadly did not make an appearance today. In fact, the weather was dull and cloudy with rain.
The little kiosks set up in the grounds included plant bulbs for sale, flower clubs, knitting items for sale, and a bake sale with hot drinks and cakes on offer.
One of the little kiosks was selling the book that featured the postbox toppers in the area that I blogged about (Postboxes in Ruislip and Eastcote Have Been Yarnbombed: Postbox Toppers), and there are a few of them on display.
Jazzology provided some live jazz-vocal type music.
The stables or old barn is laid out like a great hall and is a large open plan. This is the first time that I have been inside, and it contained a few tables set up with cards and knitted items for sale, local history information for sale, and history of Eastcote House and Gardens. Objects discovered during various escavations from 2012 to 2017 were also on display, including several pieces of broken pipes, fragments of pottery from different periods, a piece of marble from a fireplace, roof tiles, and pieces of children's toys.
The dovecote door was open to look inside, but it was locked so visitors could only have a look in through a little window. There were a lot of items on display inside, but they could not be read or seen from the distance and angle.
I had a walk around the gardens as I've not been around them too often in the past couple of months. The gardens are still looking lovely with a display of early autumn or late summer flowers. Some winter or spring flowers and roses were starting to re-bloom, or perhaps the weather just hasn't been great this year that they never stopped blooming.
I've often seen the Pinner Flower Lovers' Society miniature boquets on the benches in the garden during my visits, and they had a kiosk on the grounds. A few of the benches included a little boquet.
As the car show was very busy earlier, I decided to walk through again and check out what I did not get to see before due to the crowds. It was still busy, and a few of the cars had left. A couple of new cars appeared. I took some more photographs, and then the clouds opened up.
I would have stayed around longer had the weather been dry, but I decided to call it a day at that time (and when checking to see that the rain was scheduled to continue for the next couple of hours). Perhaps next year will be nicer weather.
Here are more posts about Eastcote House:
Spring Photos at Eastcote House
Eastcote House to Pinner
Eastcote House to Ruislip
Eastcote House at Christmas
Snowdrops, Crocuses and Daffodils in Eastcote
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