A meadow of wildflowers abundant in Silver Princess daisies, 150 pieces of free standing playful art and sculpture framed by the vista of the Surrey Hills blanketed in a weekend of warm weather made High Clandon Estate Vineyard a setting visitors flocked to on Sunday 2^nd June 2019.

The award winning vineyard known locally for its production of English Sparkling Wines saw hundreds of people across the day wander amongst the meadows flanked by the vines to take in a very different view point across to London’s dramatic skyline. The 12 acre site which also encompasses a Japanese walled garden aviary, truffiére and glass barn were all open on Sunday raising money for Clandon based children’s charity Cherry Trees and the National Open Garden charity respectively.

With a beautiful setting, perfect weather and good provisions to meet the Sunday afternoon tradition of a tea and cake, this year’s event saw 440 people visit the site, whilst over 500 cups of tea were served by Cherry Trees volunteers to guests long laid out within the ambience of the grounds and lawns.

So far, over £3,200 has been raised for Cherry Trees thanks to tea and cake sales, a raffle and then donations given on the door over the week leading up to and including Sunday 2^nd June.

High Clandon Estate has hosted a fortnight of public open days, with the National Open Garden day (Sunday 2^nd June) a highlight in the fortnight that is ‘Art and Sculpture In the Vineyard fortnight which runs 26^th May – 9^th June.

Artistic creations from both local and newly emerging artists curated both in the Glass Barn and freely out in the grounds includes contributions from Alan McKenzie, Gil Whyman, Mark Swan, and Adam Aaronson drawing on topics of dance, nature, the female form, motion and more abstract ideas with many of the pieces having a witty element to them.

Owner Sibylla Tindale, hosts the event as part of her and husband Bruce’s efforts to fundraise for the charity she is a Patron of. Cherry Trees sits less than a mile from their estate and a cause they have both supported since moving to the village over a decade ago.

“ It’s an event we know people make a bee-line for locally, as it’s a chance to come and look round our vineyard, and sample sparkling wine grown right here on the Surrey Hills and lots of people like knowing their outing raises money for charities in the process. As one of the Patrons for Cherry Trees, I enjoy the buzz of helping with the fundraising through our wine, art and garden centric fortnight. We have some really interesting artists’ show-casing their work who are working with a range of materials, scale and topics, and all of them kindly grant 10% of each sale to go to Cherry Trees and 90% to the artist.”

Jill Cook Head of Fundraising at Cherry Trees said; “Cherry Trees is so lucky to have the Tindales: wine producers, neighbours and friends of our charity opening their site up for us in this way. We know lots of people locally love going to see quite an exclusive setting, and something so simple as opening their front door for us, makes a huge difference in raising money– thank you!”

Further money is still expected to be raised for Cherry Trees once the fortnight of Art and Sculpture in the Vineyard ends thanks to 10% of all art commissions and wine sales from this year’s vintage: The Halcyon Cuvee Grand Vintage Brut 2014.  Money taken on the door on Sunday 2^nd of June will go entirely to benefit The National Open Garden Scheme.