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

  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.

  What a great place. We booked on a guided tour and learnt loads. The guide was very informative and we all enjoyed the tour.Highly recommend a visit but... read more make sure you have a tour.

  Organised a birthday outing with friends to Brogdale at the end of October. First visit and it was superb! Glorious weather, few people on site and an outstanding welcome from... read more the staff and tour guide.

Learned a lot about their national collections of fruit. Enjoyed tasting so many different apples and brought quite a few back home to eat through the winter. The on-site shop Tiddly Pomme had a very good selection of food, drink and gifts that we stocked up with for giving out in the coming weeks.

The one 'avoid at all costs' element was an on-site restaurant, The Courtyard. Staff behaved as if wanting a meal at lunchtime was an imposition on their so-valuable time, so we went elsewhere (Tiddly Pomme, local Aldi etc).

All in all, a wonderful day to remember. We shall be back next year!

  Hanami - (花見, "flower viewing") - Hanami is the Japanese traditional custom of enjoying the transient beauty of flowers; flowers ("hana") are in this case almost always referring to those of the cherry ("sakura") or, less... read more frequently, plum ("ume") trees.

Enjoy the beauty of Spring in Kent especially as shown at Brogdale - the National Fruit Collection. It is especially beautiful now with the blossom but it also has a World Music Garden (tubular bells, iroko xylophones etc) and a weather station both of which are both fun and educational for children. Every Sunday March-November you can ride on the only 9" railway opening to the public in the UK.

The centre has an excellent cafe and there is a Marketplace that includes a butchers (selling local produced meat), wine/cider/jam shop, plant centre and a gift shop.

  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.

  My father, son and I took a trip to Brogdale for an early Father’s Day lunch.

What a gem of a place, growing and selling vintage fruit collections... read more with a cluster of shops gathered around a large central courtyard. On view, the place is quaint, inviting and really interesting to mooch around, great if you fancy somewhere a little different.

Moving on to the café....
My family and I went to the on-site café for an early lunch. It was busy but we managed to get a table comfortably and service was really quick and friendly.

Whilst the menu was limited, it looked fresh and appealing with light brunch options and a few more substantial lunch dishes such as ploughman’s, jacket potatoes, sausages and mash.

My son asked for spaghetti Bolognese which only came in a Child’s portion – I asked for this to be served as a larger portion but they were unable to be flexible (possibly because it was father’s day and busy). Disappointing but they were very nice about it. Dad ordered sausages and mash and I chose a mushroom and cheese toasted ciabatta.

Our drinks arrived first, very nice coffee and a raspberry lemonade, delicious and old style but in a very small glass which I felt was a little stingy.

When the food arrived, dad’s looked great, my son’s looked skimpy but tasty, but mine looked like a slightly sweaty half ciabatta with a hint of a side salad - disappointing. My son and my father noted that their food was tasty. However, my mushroom and cheese ciabatta half tasted awful with too much tasteless mild cheddar, which had the texture of rubber and tasted like it had been under the heat lamp a little too long so it was not quite hot enough. It was simply an odd dish, poorly presented and lacking taste. More cellulite than mature cheddar sadly.

I must recommend Brogdale, and really its café is quite pleasant but just be mindful of what you order. There are obviously some great options but toasted ciabattas definitely aren’t a stron