Brogdale is a hamlet in

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England, immediately south of the M2 motorway, south of

Faversham Faversham is a market town in Kent, England, from London and from Canterbury, next to the Swale, a strip of sea separating mainland Kent from the Isle of Sheppey in the Thames Estuary. It is close to the A2, which follows an ancient British t ...

. It is one of several hamlets making up the

civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government below districts and counties, or their combined form, the unitary authority ...

Ospringe Ospringe is a village and area of Faversham in the English county of Kent. It is also the name of a civil parish, which since 1935 has not included the village of Ospringe. The village lies on the Roman road Watling Street (nowadays the A2 ro ...

and is in the Borough of Swale. Its western half is in the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

History

Brogdale was once called Brokedale. This name is shared with the family of John de Brokedale, its lords of the

manor Manor may refer to: Land ownership *Manorialism or "manor system", the method of land ownership (or "tenure") in parts of medieval Europe, notably England *Lord of the manor, the owner of an agreed area of land (or "manor") under manorialism *Man ...

of the early middle ages. After no Brokedale sons or other male-line issue remaining, the manor was owned by John Clerk – living in Brogdale in 1383. In 1734, the manor was owned by John Knowler, Mayor of Faversham. On 10 August 2003 the temperature at Brogdale reached , once a

record A record, recording or records may refer to: An item or collection of data Computing * Record (computer science), a data structure ** Record, or row (database), a set of fields in a database related to one entity ** Boot sector or boot record, ...

for the United Kingdom.

Farm

Flowering Cherries at Brogdale - geograph

Brogdale Farm is home to the

National Fruit Collection The United Kingdom's National Fruit Collection is one of the largest collections of fruit trees and plants in the world. Over 2,040 varieties of apple, 502 of pear, 350 of plum, 322 of cherry and smaller collections of bush fruits, nuts and grap ...

, one of the largest collections of fruit trees and plants in the world. Spread over it hosts the collection since it moved from

Wisley __NOTOC__ Wisley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England between Cobham and Woking, in the Borough of Guildford. It is the home of the Royal Horticultural Society's Wisley Garden. The River Wey runs through the village and Ockham and ...

in 1952. In the 1980s, the Government cut funding to the site, with closure threatened by March 1990. In response, the Brogdale Horticultural Trust took over co-ownership of the farm with Wye College. It has been the home of Faversham miniature railway since 2001. The farm runs regular fruit-themed festivals throughout the summer and autumn: *the Cherry Festival in July *the Cider Festival in August *the Apple Festival in October. During the fairs, visitors can explore the orchards and several experts give talks on the produce.

References

External links

Brogdaleonline.co.ukBrogdale Farm
{{Swale Hamlets in Kent