Sheffield Park and Garden

Fly Agaric, the most iconic of toadstools.

Today we visited Sheffield Park and Garden. The National Trust website had explained that they were limiting numbers, but when we got there there were a lot of cars and visitors. Not entirely comfortable from our point of view, but autumn is the time to come to the gardens because of the planting of trees  from the 19th century onwards selected for autumn colour. I think the peak is still to come, but it's still pretty splendid even now (extras). . 

Unusually the part of the Garden I found most interesting was the cricket pitch. Lord Sheffield was a big cricket fan. England Australia matches were played here, in front of huge crowds, and one oak tree had an iron girdle around it - to mark it as the tree hit by an outrageous six from WG Grace.

After the usual lunch in our car we explored the Park, which we enjoyed more than the Garden because we were not having to triangulate much of the time. A big loop via the water meadows around the Sussex Ouse, which the National Trust is doing a good job of restoring. We liked the sculptures created by artists working with local schoolchildren (extra).