A good friend of mine has often spoken of his visits to Sledmere House and Gardens over in the East Riding, on the outskirts of Driffield. He said there is a lovely house and gardens, lots of parkland for the dogs and a very nice café. So, I gave my brother and his wife (who live on the outskirts of Driffield) a telephone call to ask if they fancied a meet up and coffee at Sledmere House and Gardens, when ever cake and coffee are involved it is a no brainer.

It is a good one hour’s drive from home depending on the traffic, though todays visit was a little longer due to the number of tractors and slow-moving vehicles on the road. Meg and Gracie were travelling with us as well, it was a nice treat for them and somewhere new. To the best of my knowledge this was my first visit to the house and gardens. I had pre booked our admission tickets online prior to our visit, so on walking through the stable courtyard and into the visitors entrance we showed our tickets and were given a map of the grounds. My brother and his wife arrived at the same time as us so after having a photo call with some of the huge shire horses we headed over to have a look around the walled garden. The gardens are absolutely beautiful and formed into several different areas all quite traditional and different, all very colourful. We must have spent about an hour talking about the plants and walking through the different terraces, there was an abundance of Butterflies and bees making the most of the colourful flowers and shrubs. As lunch time was approaching, we headed over to the café for a very pleasant brunch on the café terrace, Meg and Gracie contently snoozing under the shade of our round table.  

Suitably refreshed we headed over to have a look around the rare breed farm to look at the chickens, pigs, goats and sheep, all contently grazing or snoozing in the warm afternoon sunshine. After leaving the animals we headed over to the courtyard to have a look in the Wagoner’s Museum. This lovely little museum tells the story of the Wagoner’s Special Reserve with photographs, medals and other memorabilia as well as an interesting video presentation from some of the Wagoner’s who fought in the First World War.

It was Sir Mark Sykes 6th Baronet who formed the Wagoner’s Special Reserve, these men became some of the first to go abroad in the First World War, driving the horse drawn wagons with supplies of food, fodder and ammunition for the frontline. After leaving the museum we headed back to have a look at some of the beautiful wagons all carefully looked after by the volunteers and friends of the museum.

After leaving the Wagon’s we headed across the road to have a browse around the Sledmere garden centre which it too was lovely.

After a very pleasant afternoon and catch up with my brother and his wife we exchanged our pleasantries before heading for the journey home.

I am certainly looking forward to our next visit.