Nymans with kids – Sussex National Trust

The big attraction at Nymans National Trust in Sussex is its gardens, famous for having plants from around the world – but if you’re thinking it’s a place for serious horiculturalists rather than considering a day out at Nymans with kids, you’d be wrong.

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Well, I’m sure serious gardeners will have a fabulous time too, but with so much space to explore and run around, countless different kinds of gardens to explore, including the chance to race through hedge tunnels, gigantic trees to spot and the ruins of the house – not to mention family trails at Nymans and woodland walks – it’s one of my favourite things to do in Sussex with kids.

And I can’t imagine it looking prettier than when we visited on a very sunny Spring day, under an improbably blue sky, on our way back home from the Sussex coast, where we’d had a few days on the beach near West Wittering.

There was an Easter trail running during our visit (keep an eye out for other family activities during the school holidays) with some fun activities to make the most of the spring flowers – a few we recognised from our visit to Petworth, around 40 minutes away on the South Downs.

But we very quickly gave ourselves up to the pleasure of wandering… as well as giggling over the first clue, based around cloud identification and cloud spotting, as there was barely a wisp to be seen that day.

Scampering between the colourful trees, lined with daffodils, we headed over towards the lawn and paths towards the house – topiary hedges lurked mushroom-like, with signs asking us to stay off the grass at the sides where bulbs were emerging.

So far, so lovely… but the first of Nymans’ surprises comes around the corner, with steps leading up to an archway. We felt a bit like Alice in Wonderland: which way, which way?

Should we continue on the path, to where a view of the tallest tree in Sussex awaited? Should we head through another opening towards the maze-style hedges? Should we head out onto the lawn and the gardens beyond? Or round to the ruins of the house, and more gardens beyond it?

The answer, obviously, was to do all of them. We ended up retracing our steps more than once, but that’s part of the beauty of visiting Nymans with kids – whichever way you go, there’s something to discover.

I was too tempted by the ruins of the house to wait any longer to see those though. It looks as if it has been there since medieval times, crumbling over the centuries – but things aren’t quite what they seem.

First of all, there was a 19th century Regency house, dating from around 1839 before the Messel family – who transformed Nymans – bought the property.

They promptly set about turning it into a much bigger home, with a tower, conservatory and other architectural flourishes over the next two decades, courtesy of owner Ludwig’s brother Alfred, a famous architect in Germany.

When Ludwig’s son Leonard inherited the house in 1915, his wife Maud was distinctly unimpressed – and the new owner had to promise to completely redesign it before she’d be persuaded to live there, transforming the existing building to a mock medieval manor house.

Throw in a change of architect half-way through the rebuilding, leaving both ends slightly different, before a fire in 1947 which destroyed most of it, and you’ve got today’s attractive semi-ruined results.

Gargoyles glower down from arches, flying buttresses hold up walls without a roof, ivy grows through open windows and little turrets make you imagine medieval families protecting themselves during the Wars of the Roses… rather than something dreamed up around the First World War.

The path leads on into a little enclosed garden, a peaceful little hideaway with its own clipped hedges and a rather impressive white bench, before taking you on to the house itself.

From this angle, you could almost believe you could step through the door and back 75 years in time before the fire. There’s glass in the windows here, and the beautiful old stone really does look as if it’s been standing for centuries rather than decades.

When it’s open, you can explore the remaining rooms with furniture and artwork belonging to Leonard and Maud Messel, kept here by their daughter Anne who lived here after the fire.

Having ticked off another stop on our trail – in praise of bees this time – there’s currently a one-way route taking you out to yet another garden (the wall garden), or looping you back round through a separate archway towards the house again.

In case you’re starting to wonder, as well as the wall garden, there’s a heather garden, a rose garden, a sunk garden, and various other highlights depending when you visit – from the June border to the Winter Walk, as well as the Lime Avenue, wildflowers, the kitchen garden that’s being restored, and more.

Too many to list, and while it felt like we wandered every available path, too many to squeeze in to our visit.

The Wall Garden is one of the loveliest, even relatively early in the year – elsewhere magnolias and rhododendron were in bloom, bluebells beginning and daffodils ending. In a few months, there’s wisteria and azaleas as well, while at the start of the year, Nymans is one of the best places to see snowdrops in the UK.

Some areas were roped off during our visit as well, letting them recover from the winter rains and for work to continue after months of lockdown, so if you’re visiting when everything’s open there’ll be even more to see; this really isn’t somewhere to stop off for an hour.

I can easily imagine copying other visitors and relaxing on the main lawn in front of the house with a picnic for hours, with huge old trees casting some welcome shade on a sunny day.

While we were there, it was hiding 10 little mice as part of the trail: just as I was thinking my eight-year-old was getting too old for kids’ trails like this, she scampered off twice around the tree making sure we hadn’t missed a single one (then started to come up with back stories for several mice).

Another highlight is the viewpoints, looking out beyond the walls of the gardens to the beautiful countryside – there was a frame in place during our visit, as another stop on the trail, but whether it’s there or not, make time to gaze out to the fields.

Along with the tallest tree in Sussex and a whole field of sheep, if you squint off to the distance, you can make out a viaduct as well.

And once you’ve explored the grounds? There’s the woodland to wander through too – which we had almost to ourselves. Several different walks wind through the woods, depending how long you’ve got to explore.

We chose the lakeside walk, a relatively easy loop that takes you down to the water – while the grounds at Nymans are accessible for buggies and toddlers, the paths in the woods aren’t suitable for pushchairs.

It’s a great place to spot bluebells, as well as being so peaceful that you can hear birdsong galore – we were convinced we could hear (though not see) a woodpecker as well.

Plus, more prosaically, some ducks on the lake, which immediately converged on us in the hope of food.

We didn’t have any, alas, but they waddled after us for a surprising way, just in case, until we felt like the Pied Piper of ducks, with a small flock behind us.

It’s all well sign-posted too, with colour-coded arrows to help you explore – even with my occasionally erratic sense of direction, you can’t go wrong – posted at regular intervals, there are also numbers on them, so you can gauge how far there is to go.

Although admittedly I only twigged that towards the end… when I also realised the numbers were going down rather than up.

Whether we did the walk backwards or not, it was the perfect end to a day at Nymans with kids – and to our Sussex holiday.

Need to know: Visting Nymans with kids

Garden entry at Nymans costs from £18 for adults, £9 for children, free to members with prebooked timed tickets required (although there are some tickets available for those who haven’t prebooked on weekday afternoons). There’s also free parking.

There’s a cafe near the entrance, as well as toilets and baby changing in the car park – 20 new toilets are being added, including family toilets, changing space and fully accessible toilet.

There’s also a kiosk serving drinks and some snacks near the house.

For more ideas of things to do in Sussex with kids, check out my pick of the best, along with the best castles in Sussex

PIN FOR LATER: A DAY OUT AT NYMANS WITH KIDS

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