Tour of Midhurst sculptor Philip Jackson’s garden raises thousands

It is the fifth year that he and his wife Jean have opened up their Casters Brook garden to raise funds for the Murray Downland Trust.

Some 250 members of the public turned out and more than £2,000 was raised.

“We were very lucky to have sunny weather and lots of people came,” said Jean.

“Philip’s tour of the sculptures was very successful. He had a red sweater on and you could see him striding through the garden like the pied piper with lots of people following him.

“Many said they had seen the pieces before but it was really good to have an insight of the work from Philip himself.”

There were hundreds of plants on sale as well as produce and cakes to buy.

President of the Professional Gardeners’ Guild and a Victoria Medal holder John Humphris was also on hand to answer questions and offer expert advice.

Young dogs and their handlers from Canine Partners gave a demonstration of how the dogs are trained and there were exhibits on the work of the Murray Downland Trust.

The trust was formed to look after neglected areas of chalkland.

It has successfully established reserves on the Downs where butterflies and Downland flowers are encouraged to flourish. Already the rare Duke of Burgundy butterfly has increased in number and one of the largest colonies is on a reserve at Heyshott. But there is a continuing need to clear scrub and the garden event aims to raise funds to carry out this work.

Jean said: “This is a really good cause, the Downland needs to be cleared to encourage the wildlife. We live here at the foot of the Downs and it seems appropriate we should do what we can to help out.”