Brogdale Collections is the home of the National Fruit Collection, our orchards are a living history & heritage of fruit

  Firstly, don't book one of their courses. I've visited Brodale several times because I'm interested in fruit trees. In 2016 my partner bought me as a Christmas present a voucher... read more (about £80) that entitled me to attend an Orchard Design course. That's what the voucher said. Please note these very important points - this is a course that runs every year, and at the time of booking, no future course dates had been set and there was no expiry date on the voucher. I received my voucher at Christmas and as expected throughout the remainder of winter and into spring, I awaited any announcement of when the next course might be. In the meantime I booked an annual 2 week holiday for the summer. (I bet you can guess what's coming next). About a month before going on holiday, guess what, Brogdale announced the date of their Orchard design course! And guess what, yep, it was to take place whilst we were away on holiday. But hey its not a problem. I had a voucher to attend a course. The voucher did not say which year I had to attend and there was no expiry date on the voucher, so I wasn't concerned.
I rang Brogdale and told then I would like to have attended but can't make it as I now had a holiday booked. I had not booked onto this course because I didn't know what the date was until about a month before they decided to run it. That's when the problems began. They said the voucher was for 2017 and yet there was no mention of this on the voucher and again I stress, there was no expiry date on the voucher. Naturally I expressed my extreme dissatisfaction. A few emails passed between myself and Brogdale. Roll forward to 2018. I still had a voucher to attend the Orchard Design Course but this time I waited until the date was announced for summer 2018 (again the announcement was late and didn't give people very much notice). I contacted Brogdale and said I have a voucher and would like to book on the course. They again said the voucher was for 2017 and I can't use it (remember what I said earlier in that the voucher didn't have a date on it and there was no expiry date). Naturally by this point I was very angry and asked for the email of whoever was in charge at Brogdale. I was told it's a charity and I was refused their email. I was told (4th June 2018) that my email would be passed on to the 'Trustees' for their consideration. I had to email them again on 1st October to find out why it was taking so long. I had a response today from Brogdale to say my voucher had expired. My response naturally is how can my voucher expire?? It never had an expiry date!!! There was no date on the voucher!! My only course of action remains to pay a solicitor to try and recover my £80 or use the power of social media. As far as I'm concerned (and the voucher) they have broken their contract with me. As I said at the start, don't book a course with them. If I could score them as less than 1, I would do!

  Insect talk was terrific - and quite hands on (literally - except for the centipede!); train wasn't running but looked like a fun thing to do.

  Took the family to the Cider Festival today, a great day out. Although it was a heatwave, that didn't stop play and all the staff were really friendly. ... read more Had a very interesting tractor ride through the orchards, some tasty local cider and a delicious pizza and hog roast...and some more cider! Live music for all tastes too, and good old fashioned fun dotted around. Looking forward to returning for the next event. Well done all!

  Bought a beef fore rib for £20 from the Brogdale butchers at Ruxley Garden Centre for Sunday lunch.

Cooked it today (Medium) and it was the toughest and... read more chewiest piece of beef that I have ever purchased.
Very disappointed.

  After looking around in Tiddly Pomme at Brogdale, where the man was very helpful and pleasant, I then popped into the collections office to get some information and was unfortunately... read more greeted by a very rude and condesending lady who was most unhelpful and totally rude for no apparent reason. I would be reluctant to visit their office again.

  Went to visit Brogdale Farm, mainly for the miniature train for the children 4yr and 1yr. This wasnt working, played in the park for 10mins then went to find someone... read more to help us as nothing/no-one was about, no entrance hut. Found the Tour Shop who very rudely told me "you cant walk around here for free you know" thank you that's why I was asking where the orchard walks were, then her response "well when you pay we give you a map" would have been nice to tell me your prices and how things work before snapping at me. Even when I told her we have never been here before she still didn't change her attitude. So we promptly left.
If you dont want people walking around then it shouldn't be so open, have boundaries, put them up and have an entrance hut.
I would not recommend this place.