Brighton & Hove Tree Festival 2024

Event Information

Running over two weekends in May, the Brighton & Hove Tree Festival offers a host of free events for everyone to enjoy. There are also opportunities to get involved before the festival and throughout May with Tree Trails, a Photography Competition ‘I love this tree because...’ and the Champion School Trees project. Read on to see the full programme of events and find out more!

Saturday 11th May

Special Trees Walk

10.30 to noon

Local resident and tree expert Alister Peters is your guide for this look at some of our city’s most special trees. The start of the walk will focus on the amazing variety of trees in Pavilion Gardens before heading out of the gardens into Marlborough Place and Valley Gardens to look at the many different species of special trees, native, naturalised and exotic, growing here.

Alister works for Connick Tree Care, one of the Tree Festival.sponsors. Connick maintains trees in our streets and take care of the city’s National Elm Collection.

Meet at the Pavilion Café, Royal Pavilion Gardens. The walk will finish at St Peter’s Church, York Place. Limited to 15 walkers (first-come first-served basis)

To book go to cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/special-trees-walk

The City’s Unique Elm Trees Walk

2pm to 3.30pm

This walk is focused exclusively on elm trees and will feature some of the same trees as the Special Trees Walk in the morning. Your guide is national elm expert and researcher Peter Bourne. The start of the walk will focus on the historic elm trees in Pavilion Gardens before heading into Marlborough Place and Valley Gardens to look at the wide variety of special elms. Brighton is home to the National Elm Collection and has more varieties of elms than anywhere in Europe.

Meet at Pavilion Café in the Royal Pavilion Gardens. The walk will finish at St Peter’s Church, York Place. Limited to 15 walkers (first-come first-served basis)

To book your place go to cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/the-citys-unique-elms-walk

Lilac Walk

2pm and again at 3pm

The lilacs in Withdean Park were designated, in 1982, as the National Lilac Collection by the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens. However, it sadly lost this status in 2009 due to lack of funding and loss of the expertise to maintain the necessary documentation, propagation and upkeep. The Friends of Withdean Park are working hard to maintain and to identify more of the 250+ types of lilac found in the park. When the lilacs are in bloom it is one of the most beautiful places to be in Brighton.

Meet at Withdean Park notice board on London Road, five minutes before each walk. Withdean Park, Peacock Lane, BN1 8NA.

To book go to cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/lilac-walk

Limited to 20 walkers (first-come first-served basis)

Apple Orchard Walk: National Collection of Sussex Apples

11am to 12.30pm

Join Peter May for a guided walk through the Home Farm Orchard and Meadow Orchard. Peter is a horticulturalist who has propagated more than 1,000 Sussex apple trees. He is jointly responsible for the management of several community orchards and runs regular courses for Brighton Permaculture Trust and Plumpton Agricultural College on a range of orchard skills. He is also co-author of Apples & Orchards in Sussex.

Meet at The Fruit Factory, Brighton Permaculture Trust, Stanmer Park Village. The walk ends back at The Fruit Factory.

To book go to cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/apple-orchard-walk

Limited to 20 walkers (first-come first-served basis)

Pollinators in the Trees

Workshops, 1 to 2 and 2 to 3

Join the Buzz Club for one of two family-friendly workshops. The Buzz Club is a citizen science club directed by Professor Dave Goulson at the University of Sussex

Come and learn more about how we can help pollinators in our own outdoor spaces and how trees support them. Make an artificial breeding habitat for hoverflies to take home, play games and take part in a self-led tree trail where you will learn how to record insects.

Location: University of Sussex, Falmer Campus

This event is suitable for everyone aged 4 and up, but children must always be supervised with no more than 2 children per adult. Maximum of 20 people including children at each workshop. We will be at a woodland pond which is in the middle of the campus, quite hidden in the woods so please see the information below: by car: Park in the Science Car Park (P1 on attached map). Once parked, head to the Friston building, which is in the lower right hand side of the car park (if you are looking down hill). Take the bark path to the left of the building and you will spot us very quickly! by train: Exit the train station, and walk towards Campus (the opposite side of the tracks to the AMEX and under the A27 bridge into the campus. Follow the map to the Richmond building where a member of staff will meet you. by bus: Get the 23, or 25 to North-south Road. Walk up the road towards the Fulton building. Before you reach the Fulton Building, the Richmond building is on the right. A member of staff will meet you there.

For more information about how to get to campus, please see here:

sussex.ac.uk/about/directions

sussex.ac.uk/sef/services/transport/campus-parking/parking-for-visitors

To book a workshop please go to cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/pollinators-in-the-trees

Join the friends of Craven Wood

from 3pm

Everyone’s invited so bring a picnic and enjoy being out in the woods! Meet in the ‘meadow’ in the middle of the woods. Please note there are very few flat areas in our Wood and the meadow is on sloping ground, Access into the wood is from:

1. the southern end of The Causeway BN2 0FP

2. the southern end of Parham Close, BN2 0FD

3. the junction of footpaths from Walpole Road BN2 0AB and St John the Baptist Primary School, Whitehawk Hill Road BN2 0AH

There will be direction signs at each entrance to the Wood

Getting there: take the number 2 bus route to ’Top of Queensway’ or the number 21 to ’Top of Manor Hill’, it’s a short way from there down to The Causeway.

This event is unfortunately not suitable for people with mobility problems.

No booking required

Sunday 12th May

Wilding Waterhall – explore, walk and talk

10am to 12.30pm

Explore Brighton’s newest nature reserve with ranger Paul Gorringe. Join us up on the Downs to discover why trees are important in a landscape dominated by ancient grassland habitats and enjoy a cup of tea and cake after your walk.

Meet at the Waterhall (ex-golf) clubhouse Waterhall Nature Reserve (ex golf course), Saddlescombe Road, BN1 8AX

Google map:

google.com/maps/place/Wilding+Waterhall/

What 3 words map:

map.what3words.com/lined.future.orchestra

To book your place please go to

cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/wilding-waterhall

Wildlife Walk

5.30pm to 7pm

Find out what lives in the woods at Stanmer with members of the Brighton Wildlife Forum.

Meet outside Stanmer House, Stanmer Park, BN1 9QA The walk will take around 1.5 hours. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk. No booking required

Evening Bat Walk

8.30pm to 10.15pm

Enjoy an evening walk with Huw Morgan from the Sussex Wildlife Trust and learn more about our bats. There will be a chat about bats from 8.45pm and then a walk among the trees.

Meet outside Stanmer House, Stanmer Park, BN1 9QA Limited to 15 people, under 18’s must be accompanied. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk.

To book your place, please go to

cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/what-lives-in-the-woods

Please consider donating to Sussex Wildlife Trust for

this event here: sussexwildlifetrust.org.uk/make-a-difference/donate

Birds & Bees

2pm to 5pm

Come and find out more about the lives of our bees and birds and how we can all help them thrive.

Meet us In the park near Hove Park Café, Park View Road, Hove BN3 7BF

Honey Bees ‒ Marvel at the life of bees with the Brighton & Lewes Beekeepers

Save our Starlings ‒ Find out more about our wonderful starlings and swifts and what can we do to help them with ‘Save Our Starlings’ founder, photographer Steve Geliot Shaping a greener future for the city ‒ Find out more about what CPRE Sussex, the countryside charity are doing to help shape a greener future for our city and the countryside surrounding it!

No booking required

Music of the trees

2pm to 5pm

Relax and join well-known community songwriter and musician, Robb Johnson, for a fun session of music and poetry about trees at the Lewes Road Inn. Robb will be joined by an exciting line-up including:

John Hegley, widely known as one of the country’s most innovative comic poets and a regular sell-out at The Edinburgh Festival

Rachel Rankin-Hayward, the award-winning steel pan player

Regular shindig hosts the Acoustic Irregulars, Sian Allen & Fae Simon

Location

The Lewes Road Inn, 158 Lewes Road, Brighton, BN2 3LF

No booking required

Saturday 18th May

Forum: Fantastic Elms & Other Amazing Trees

3pm to 5pm

Meet the tree experts for a lively afternoon of talks and discussion followed by a chance mingle and meet the panellists over afternoon tea.

The event will be chaired by David Shreeve MBE, Director of The Conservation Foundation

Speakers include:

Keith Sacre, a director at Barcham Trees and one of the UK’s foremost urban foresters

Paul Wood, author of ‘London’s Street Trees’ and ‘London is a Forest’

Alister Peters, experienced urban forester working with Connick Tree Care, one of the Tree Festival sponsors.

Location

The Friends’ Meeting House, Ship Street, Brighton BN1 1AF

Maximum seats of 80 are available so please book your

tickets here cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/fantastic-elms-and-other-amazing-trees

Sunday 19th May

Elm Trees Walk – Pavilion Gardens

10:30am to 12 noon

This walk is focused exclusively on elm trees in and around the Pavilion Gardens. The gardens contain a wide variety of elms including some of the oldest in the city. Local tree enthusiast Pete Comley will talk about Brighton’s historical connection with elm trees. The serious problem of Elm Disease and the ways the city has been trying to combat it.

Meet at The Pavilion Café, the Royal Pavilion Gardens

Limited to 15 walkers (on a first come basis)

To book go to

cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/elm-trees-walk

Stanmer’s Wonderful Woods – Walk

2.30pm to 4pm

Come and find out more about who lives in the trees at this family-friendly event. Discover the park’s history as we stroll through the woods at Stanmer Park and visit some of our veteran trees, trees that have have been part of Stanmer for over 200 years. We’ll also find out more about the age-old practice of coppicing woodland for the benefit of man and nature.

Your guide to Stanmer’s rich woodland is Rob Dumbrill, the estate manager and expert woodsman

Meet outside Stanmer House. Stanmer Park, Brighton

The walk will take around 1.5 hours. Please dress appropriately for a woodland walk.

To book go to: www.cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/stanmers-wonderful-woods

To book go to:
https://www.cpresussex.org.uk/tree-festival/